I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 300 Persistence and Defeat (please vote for me)

More than 10,000 Dutch rebels formed two long and narrow infantry lines on a gentle slope, with three rows in front and back of each line. The soldiers were closely arranged and looked impressive from a distance.

However, the messy costumes on their bodies and the different models of flintlock guns in their hands all proved that they were just a motley army gathered temporarily.

In fact, it took them a full 6 hours to arrange their infantry lines starting from early this morning. The Dutch commanders were so tired that their legs cramped.

When these miscellaneous troops saw the dense Austrian front line in the distance beginning to move, and a large number of ant-like skirmishers moving nimbly towards them, their hands almost began to tremble uncontrollably.

Behind them, more than a thousand Prussian soldiers kept shouting: "Keep calm and do nothing!"

The priest in the Dutch queue also whispered to the soldiers beside him, "Don't think about anything later, just load the ammunition as quickly as possible. Then pay attention to the sound of the drum."

When the fastest Austrian skirmishers appeared 80 steps ahead of the Dutch line formation, they began to hide behind weeds or rocks and shoot at the South Dutchmen.

Several bullets flew through the air and landed on the line array. Immediately, some soldiers fell to the ground wailing, twisting and twitching in pain.

The Prussian soldiers behind them immediately shouted: "Don't move! Move the dead away! Keep the formation tight! Quick!"

However, the lack of training in the Netherlands did not seem to hear them. They just followed the injured and shouted randomly, or subconsciously raised their guns to aim at the Austrians in the distance.

As the Austrian main force continued to approach, the skirmishers began to disperse to both sides, giving way to the frontal battlefield.

The Prussian officer estimated that the distance between the infantry lines of the two armies was less than a hundred steps, and ordered the Dutch to start loading.

The orderly soldier rode on horseback to convey the reloading instructions, and the drummer beat the specific drum beat for reloading. Soldiers operating weapons according to this rhythm can maintain the highest reloading efficiency.

The Austrians continued to advance, and when they were sixty steps away from the enemy, they still had no intention of stopping shooting.

The Dutch line formation finally could no longer hold its strength. The huge sense of oppression from nearly ten thousand people rushing in front of them made the soldiers' minds go blank, and they just wanted to use every method to drive these people away.

Sporadic gunshots appeared throughout the online array. The Prussian officer in charge was worried that this motley group of troops would waste all their ammunition, so he had to order the entire army to shoot.

After a chaotic "volley" that lasted for half a minute, the Dutch position was shrouded in black smoke, but the results were very limited. The Austrians continued to advance in an orderly formation.

It was not until the two sides were 50 steps apart that the Austrian army stopped. With a burst of intensive drumbeats, the soldiers raised their flintlock guns.

"shooting!"

Under the orders of the Austrian commander, large fires erupted from the endless infantry lines, and the fierce salvo fire "knocked" hundreds of small gaps in the Dutch front.

Pastor Netherland yelled: "Don't be afraid! Keep loading! For the sake of your families and to drive away the Habsburg tyrant, everyone, hold on!"

It seemed that their encouragement had an effect. Although their hands and feet were trembling, the motley crew barely completed the filling, then gritted their teeth and raised their guns, waiting for the Prussian officer's instructions.

On the distant hill, General Wilmser frowned and looked at the battlefield in the telescope.

The brave grenadiers under his command fired more than ten rounds of volleys at the Dutchmen, killing at least a thousand people, but the enemy still showed no sign of collapse.

Behind the Dutch infantry line, there was another line of defense composed of infantry. There should be Prussians further behind.

"These damn rebels! Why are you still standing there?" He cursed secretly, and was thinking about whether to invest more skirmishers to tear the enemy's flanks apart, when he suddenly heard the rapid hooves of the scouts approaching quickly.

As soon as he turned his head, he heard the visitor shout breathlessly: "General, general, the Prussians are outflanking our right wing."

Before Wilmser could react, his staff came over with binoculars and exclaimed: "General, there is a commotion on the left wing of the cavalry. There may be enemy troops there."

Wilmser suddenly turned pale. It seemed that the Prussians were not behind the Dutch infantry line. This guy from Brunswick actually used his main force to sneak attack on his two wings!

He waved his cane vigorously and shouted to the herald: "Order Shurodel to break through the enemy's front as quickly as possible at all costs! As long as we are the first to defeat their infantry line, victory will belong to us!"

For the decisive battles of large corps in this era, the frontal defense line is like a person's waist and abdomen. Once it is breached, first of all, the commander will have nowhere to stay. Suffering from poor communication capabilities, if a commander must move at high speed to escape an enemy attack, the herald will immediately lose sight of him, causing the entire army to lose command.

In addition, the loss of the frontal battlefield means that artillery and cavalry have no safe space for preparation. For these two arms that require a lot of preparation work, this is equivalent to losing combat effectiveness.

Therefore, as long as the head-on confrontation can be won, the losses on both wings are nothing at all.

The Grenadier Regiment on the right side of the Austrian infantry line moved forward more bravely and fought back against the bullets of the Dutch.

Finally, after taking a lot of casualties, they tore a gap on the left side of the Dutch Line.

The Austrian skirmishers, like sharks that smelled blood, immediately swarmed towards the gap and kept shooting at non-commissioned officers and drummers to increase the confusion of the enemy troops.

Seeing the collapse of the first line of infantry in the Netherlands, Wilmser clenched his fists excitedly, and then nervously looked to the right, where the sound of the Prussian cavalry's hooves could be faintly heard.

The combat effectiveness of the Austrian cavalry was not as good as that of the Prussians, and they were sent to the left wing just now, so they could not resist the Prussians for long.

He turned the telescope again, anxiously urging Schroeder to tear through the Dutch second line of defense as soon as possible.

On the other side, the Duke of Brunswick put away his telescope and said to the herald with a relaxed expression: "Go and tell the Dutch that as long as they persist for 15 minutes, the Austrians will get out of this land."

He could estimate the speed of his main force, which should have been in contact with the Austrian right wing by now.

Yes, his cavalry was just a cover. He devoted all 14,000 Prussian main forces to outflank the Austrian right wing. That was his trump card!

After this period of contact with the people of the Southern Netherlands, he was deeply impressed by their tenacity.

Although these miscellaneous troops had low combat effectiveness and were not even in order, their morale was extremely high - perhaps it was their pursuit of so-called freedom that made them willing to die to drive away the Austrian emperor. Especially the priests, as if they were waiting to ascend to heaven, they were not afraid of any enemy.

Therefore, he judged that although these Dutchmen could not defeat the Austrian army at all, it was very possible for them to hold Wilmser back.

On the distant battlefield, the second line of Dutch infantry, which had been riddled with holes, seemed to be crumbling, but it still persisted and did not collapse.

Many of the Prussians supervising the battle behind them were shot to death by stray bullets, and chaos began to arise, but they still stood there, clumsily reloading their ammunition repeatedly with trembling hands, and fired at the Austrians indiscriminately until their lives were taken away by bullets. , but never moved...

The Austrian right wing had been crushed to pieces by the overwhelmingly superior Prussian army.