Fox of France

Although he said "I will consider it", Joseph did not intend to weaken the defense at all in exchange for the attack power when he was reckless. Since the British cannons are not in place yet, let's hurry up and make the tortoise's shell stronger.

However, those bad moves in Joseph's mind are almost ready for the conditional ones. If there are no conditions, even if conditions are created—it still won’t work. But isn't there still time? I always feel a little uneasy if I don't hit something, or what about a spectacle?

Of course, Joseph knew that the spectacle would harm the country, so it was better to continue hammering the fortress. And Joseph hammered a lot of false targets in one breath. By the way, the government was forced to place a lot of new orders to the "military-industrial complex". To fill the embezzlement gap in the arsenal.

In addition, Joseph also specially arranged for a person to send an emergency report to Napoleon every day, asking Napoleon to come and save his life. However, that guy Napoleon led the army slower and slower, but the British cannons began to gradually arrive in place.

"That bastard, he just wants to let the enemy army hit me to the bone, exhausted, and then come up to take advantage of it! I'm sure that's what this kid thinks, it must be!" Joseph got After Napoleon's reply of "The road conditions are too bad, the soldiers were too tired when they crossed the Alps, the weather was bad, anyway, they haven't made a big attack yet... I don't understand why you are panicking?" Such a judgment.

Joseph's judgment was indeed very correct, Napoleon thought so, and Joseph thought about it for himself, if the commander of the fortress was Joubert, then he would probably suggest Napoleon do the same. Since he would do this, Napoleon would definitely do it too!

After the cannons were in place, the British began to attack according to the old routine in Liege. The so-called old routine, of course, is: bombardment, bombardment, bombardment after bombardment. Yes, the infantry don't charge for now, wait until the artillery bombards slowly for a few days, and some defensive facilities are almost destroyed.

So Joseph was very happy to see the false targets he built began to collapse under the attack of British artillery; while calculating how much gunpowder the British spent, how much artillery barrel life, and how much time.

However, the time consumed is actually the most useless, because Napoleon stopped the troops again for repairs. It is said that Napoleon complained to Chief of Staff Berthier: "What are the British doing? They are moving so slowly! We are already procrastinating, why are they still dawdling!"

The British spent several days, using artillery fire to hammer the false targets that Joseph had built for several days to pieces. Then he told the Duke of Brunswick: "The rest is up to you, you nibble down this section, and then we will bombard it for a few more days, so that we will be able to take Verdun in a short time."

So the Prussians confidently assumed an offensive posture. After all, the zigzag-shaped parapet in front of it has been bombarded by the British without money, and it has been smashed out of shape. It shouldn't be too difficult to seize this parapet.

Just as the Prussians formed an offensive formation, the Duke of Brunswick saw through the telescope that behind some incomplete parapets, there were still some French soldiers poking their heads there.

"The French are really brave. They have been guarding there all the time, but as long as we attack, they can't stop us with such a broken parapet." Thinking so, the Duke of Brunswick gave an order to attack.

The Prussian soldiers approached the parapet of the French army in skirmish formation, and the French army began to shoot at the Prussian army. The Prussian army used guns to cover the skirmishers and continued to approach.

At this time, a series of explosions suddenly came, and several Prussian soldiers fell down holding their legs.

"This is?" Brunswick was taken aback.

"It's a mine." Major George Cavendish, the liaison officer sent by the British to the Duke of Brunswick, replied, "We often encounter these things in Ireland. But it seems that the power of the landmines here by the French seems to be Much smaller."

The Duke of Brunswick immediately remembered that those Poles seemed to have used this kind of thing too. However, in order to ensure that the underground supply lines passing through Prussia will not be hit too much, the Poles have been using these things mainly on the Russian territory, so the Prussians have only heard that the French have such a Despicable stuff, but very few Prussians are lucky enough to fly in one of these "dirt planes" themselves.

In the previous battle with the French army, the Prussians also encountered the Northern Army of the non-Bonapartist system. Nor were they equipped with such vile weapons. So this is the first time that the British-Prussian coalition has encountered such an insidious guy as a landmine.

However, although landmines caused a lot of losses to the Prussians, landmines alone could not stop the Prussians from moving forward. The Prussians gradually approached the parapet, and those French soldiers who were still guarding the parapet turned around and fled after the Prussian soldiers approached.

"The morale of the French has also dropped a lot." A Prussian said.

"They still have such morale, which is already very good." Major George Cavendish said, "After consecutive defeats, the morale of soldiers in most countries should have been very bad at this time ...Moreover, they are retreating, not retreating. You can see that the running routes of those Frenchmen are not in a straight line."

"Well, they're running away—I mean when they're retreating, they still know how to dodge bullets, so they're not in a panic," another Prussian major general said.

"It's not just dodging bullets," Major Cavendish said. "They're avoiding stepping on their own mines. I've seen Irish rebels run like that when they crossed minefields in Ireland." .”

"Have you fought against the rebels supported by the French in Ireland?" the major general asked curiously.

"Yes, General Blucher, I fought rebels in Ireland," Major Cavendish replied.

"I heard that the Irish rebels are very good at fighting?" Another Prussian officer said.

"The Irish rebels are very cunning and vicious. One of my cousins, Viscount Anderson, died fighting them because of landmines." Major Cavendish said, "In contrast, the French People are much easier to deal with. However, today's posture reminds me of Ireland again."

At this time, the Prussian skirmishers who were chasing had already crossed the half-collapsed parapet. Of course, as a price, fifty or sixty of them would not have to worry about not having enough food in the future. In the days to come, I will definitely be inseparable from crutches.

Of course, the French army also paid a price. In the previous confrontation, the French army also killed five or six people, and then when they were retreating, a dozen more were killed.

The Prussian skirmishers continued to move forward, and in front of them was the first barbed wire fence of the French army.

The French who ran over all got down on their stomachs and skillfully climbed over the barbed wire fence from several predetermined positions. In those places, a little space was left under the barbed wire, just enough for a person to crawl through.

But it was impossible for the Prussian skirmishers behind to do this. First of all, they had to go through a minefield after chasing them. Although they didn't know much about landmines before, the comrades behind them who were lying on the ground holding their feet and mourning had already used the bloody facts to let them understand what a minefield was.

So after taking down the parapet, they stopped at the parapet and hid behind the parapet to wait. Anyway, the military order given to them above was to seize the parapet and open the way for subsequent attacks. As for what to do next after taking down the parapet, anyway, the superior didn't say, if you don't paddle at this time, will you really hit your head hard?

Even if the parapet was occupied, the army behind could not follow up immediately, because there was still a minefield between the parapet and the main force of the British-Prussian coalition forces.

"Landmines can still be found if you look carefully." Major Cavendish said, "After all, the trip wires are still exposed. We have a dedicated demining team, all of whom are the most experienced personnel. They can quickly open a safe passage through the minefield."

So the experienced British demining team set off. However, their demining speed was not as fast as Major Cavendish said. Of course, this may also be because the major's standards for speed are not the same as theirs. In short, the major's servants have already prepared morning tea for the major.

"After the morning tea, the passage should be cleared," Major Cavendish said.

As expected by Major Cavendish, at noon, the safe passage was finally opened. More infantry followed. They planned to rely on the remaining parapet of the French to repair it first, and then continue to attack.

However, what they didn't expect was that this parapet was originally a false target, a decoy. The location of this section of the parapet was already marked by the French artillery behind it, and it had already been tested here even before the parapet was built.

As a result, as soon as the Prussians gathered behind this parapet, the French tore off the camouflage net covering the eight-pound cannon not far away, and immediately fired a salvo. These cannons were half buried in the trenches, only the barrels were above the ground, and covered with camouflage nets, it was basically impossible to be found from a distance. The firepower of this round of salvo was not particularly ferocious (Joseph did not allow all the cannons to fire, so as to save people in the future), but the accuracy of the hit was amazing. There were only ten cannons fired in total, but the The shells all hit the target accurately, causing dozens of casualties at once.