I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 299 The decisive battle in Rochefort (please ask for monthly tickets during the double period)

"Send a good news to Vienna. The Liege rebellion has been put down. General Wilmser raised his hand tiredly to the staff officer aside, "His Majesty the Emperor must be impatient to wait. "

He then looked at the Austrian soldiers who were lining up to enter the city of Liège: "The two regiments responsible for the main attack today will stay and rest. The others will set off immediately and must arrive in Valeem before tomorrow afternoon."

Varem is the only way to South Brabant, more than 40 kilometers away [Note 1].

Six days after entering Liege Province, the Austrian army, which was constantly harassed by the rebels, finally captured the city of Liege and achieved its first major victory since the war began.

However, General Wilmser was not happy at all. This progress was much slower than he expected. Now the Prussian army has probably arrived near Brussels.

In other words, his plan to surround the Brabant rebels and try to ambush the Prussians could no longer be implemented.

And in today's battle against the Liege rebels, he still failed to eliminate the main force of the rebels. About 3,000 rebels decisively abandoned the city and fled toward Varem. He killed and captured less than 800 rebels in Liege.

In addition, the situation on Long's side was also very bad - three days after the news of the loss of the Musil Army, he sensed that something was wrong and sent a cavalry company north to check the situation. The cavalry finally returned yesterday, reporting that Musil had not yet been able to capture Long.

General Wilmser steeled himself, as long as he could defeat the Prussians at Brabant, all this would be nothing.

He took the reins from the attendant and was about to get on his horse when he suddenly saw a scout cavalry galloping towards him. He frowned immediately.

Because the cavalry came from the south, and the enemies should be in the north now.

The scout saw the commander-in-chief twenty meters away and immediately shouted: "Emergency military situation! Rochefort has discovered the rebels. There are at least 5,000 people!"

General Wilmser's pupils shrank, why did those rebels run south?

Rochefort was only two days away from Luxembourg, which was a must-stop whether transporting supplies from Austria or France.

If Luxembourg is attacked by rebels, its own logistical supplies will immediately have problems.

He looked anxiously in the direction of Brabant, hesitated again and again, and finally sighed forcefully and said to the herald: "The whole army must gather and march towards Rochefort. Oh, let Colonel Musil give up Long, Go to Varème immediately to prevent the rebels from escaping back to Brabant."

"Yes, General!"

Just as the Austrian army was complaining about the whole team heading south, outside the city of Namur not far northwest of Rochefort, the Duke of Brunswick, the commander-in-chief of the Prussian army, was galloping past the endless column of Prussian troops. Waving his hands and shouting: "Get your damn legs out of the way! As long as you arrive at Rochefort before tomorrow, the glorious victory will be yours!"

As an old man over seventy years old, he is definitely getting stronger with age.

He had been galloping like this for nearly twenty minutes continuously, and kept shouting to boost morale. Finally, both he and the horse, exhausted of their strength, stopped panting.

Marquis Blücher caught up from behind on horseback and handed the kettle to the Duke of Brunswick: "Marshal, please drink some water. Rochefort sent news just now, and the Dutch are ready. There are more than 12,000 people in total.”

The latter raised his head and drank a few sips of water, with a smile flashing at the corner of his mouth: "Where did that lawyer named Vandernot get so many people?"

"The Dutch sent 200,000 gold shields and a lot of weapons. The Dutch quickly armed a large number of citizens."

200,000 Dutch guilders are equivalent to 2.5 million livres, which shows the strong support the Dutch have for their fellow Netherlands residents.

Blücher said with some hesitation: "Marshal, is it really not dangerous for us to abandon Brabant? The Austrians are only three days away from there."

The Duke of Brunswick shook the horse's reins and said calmly: "That old guy Wilmser never dares to take risks. Even if Brabant doesn't have a single soldier, he will not give up Luxembourg and attack there."

Two days later, the Austrian army arrived at the outskirts of Rochefort. Then General Wilmser received a report from the scouts and found at least 20,000 Prussian troops and tens of thousands of Dutch rebels in the southeast.

General Wilmser immediately felt nervous. The Prussians were marching faster than he expected. He originally thought he would only face the rebels, but he didn't want to fight here.

Fortunately, his many years of experience in commanding large armies enabled him to not neglect reconnaissance, thereby avoiding the dilemma of being ambushed.

He immediately took out the map to check, pointed to a flat open area in front of him, and said to his staff in a deep voice: "Deploy troops here immediately. Let Winkler lead his skirmishers to set up outposts first, and watch out for Prussian raids."

"Yes, General!"

However, when the Austrians began to line up at the position designated by Wilmser, 15 cannons suddenly appeared at the front of the Prussian army and began to launch a fierce bombardment at the Austrian army.

Winkler's Corps was the elite of the Austrian army. It withstood the bombardment and stood firm at the front of the open field. Behind them, the line infantry, encouraged, also began to form rapidly out of range of the enemy's artillery.

The Prussian artillery fired a full 30 rounds, but because the skirmishers led by Winkler were dispersed, they only killed more than 200 people. However, the Prussian forward was unable to kill them under the threat of the Austrian skirmishers. Directly attack the main force of the Austrian army.

General Wilmser finally waited until his main force was fully deployed, and immediately ordered the artillery to start fighting back - the Winkler Corps was his trump card, and every death made him feel heartbroken.

The two sides exchanged fire for a while, and Wilmser finally noticed in the telescope that the front of the Prussian position seemed to be a line array composed of Dutch rebels.

He was immediately overjoyed that the Duke of Brunswick had made such a stupid mistake - using such an amateur army with little training to take charge of the most important frontal battlefield. Once they are broken through, it will cause the entire Prussian army to collapse!

Wilmser decisively said to the herald: "Order Schroeder to immediately attack the enemy's line formation! Let Berg's grenadiers also press forward, and the cavalry pay attention to protecting the two wings."

"Yes, General!"

[Note 1] In the 18th century, the Southern Netherlands, later known as the Brabant region of Belgium, was divided into two major parts: north and south. North Brabant, which includes Brussels, is slightly larger and belongs to the Dutch-speaking area. South Brabant is a smaller, French-speaking area. North and South Brabant combined form the most prosperous core area of ​​the Southern Netherlands.