I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 449 Winning is easy

Standing on a high ground, Drissen saw that his infantry line suddenly collapsed before it had any contact with the enemy, and immediately threw the telescope to the ground in anger.

"They are simply a shame to the Royal Guards!"

He remembered that his grenadiers were still holding on, and hurriedly said to the herald: "Order Boll and Carus's regiments to go up and reinforce the grenadiers!"

These two regiments are his reserve troops. In his opinion, the accident must have occurred because of the improper command of the Fein Corps. As long as the situation can be stabilized with the grenadiers as the core, it should be able to delay.

Soon, the Prussian reserve troops, which had just completed the formation, began to move forward. They were about 200 steps behind the first infantry line before, and it only took ten minutes to fill the gap.

Their second line formation also has another function, which is to block the soldiers who try to escape after the collapse in front.

In the wars of this era, the lethality of weapons was actually very limited - tens of thousands of flintlock rifles could only kill a hundred people - most of the time, whoever's morale collapsed first and the soldiers fled the ranks would be defeated. So as long as the soldiers can continue to stand in their positions, there is still a fight.

However, this time the soldiers who fled in front seemed extremely frightened, and faced the bayonets of the reserve team, they still ran back regardless.

Many of them were still shouting something:

"They can't be killed at all..."

"Run, those are devils!"

"Only God can kill them!"

This made the soldiers in the reserve team begin to hesitate, until the officers killed several deserters and personally came to the front of the team to lead the way, and then they barely stabilized the situation.

But before the two regiments of Boll and Carus filled the gap in the front infantry line, the two grenadier regiments also began to collapse.

There was really no way, the combat effectiveness of these police academy students of the Guards Corps was too strong. Whether it was the level of loading, shooting, formation, or morale, they completely suppressed them.

Especially this time, the protection of bulletproof inserts made the police academy students extremely excited. They rushed to less than 20 steps in front of the Prussians and completely defeated them with a round of volleys.

In fact, at such a close distance, the bulletproof inserts could no longer provide effective protection, but the Prussians could no longer continue to fire volleys, and the damage caused by sporadic shooting was minimal.

Drissen took the staff telescope and saw that his reserve team had not had much contact with the enemy, and then fled with the Grenadiers.

He looked at his pocket watch with a sullen face. It took the French less than half an hour to defeat his temporary defense line.

He knew very well that his main force must still be in chaos. In this case, fighting with the neatly-formed French army would only be chased and beaten.

Driesen sighed helplessly. After Frederick the Great's death, the training level of the Prussian army deteriorated. He didn't expect that even the very elite Royal Guards would become like this.

He heard the French gunshots getting closer and closer, and hurriedly turned his horse's head to retreat, and then turned to the messenger and said:

"Order the August Corps to return to Liegnitz immediately. The other corps retreated to the north in an orderly manner and defended in stages."

The August Corps was originally responsible for the rear guard. At this time, it was the farthest from the French army and should have a chance to escape. The other troops can only delay for a while. If they are lucky, they may be able to escape back.

Yes, Driesen has decided to give up resistance.

He suddenly remembered that two months ago he and Krokov talked about how Karl II was easily defeated by the French in Luxembourg. At that time, they all laughed at the Hanoverians as trash.

Now it seems that maybe it's not that the Hanoverian army is too bad, but that the French are too strong...

After receiving the order to retreat in stages, Colonel Duden immediately ordered the officers to abandon all the baggage and the soldiers to assemble on the slope on the east side.

His troops were in the southernmost position, and they definitely couldn't retreat if they wanted to. Now they could only try their best to buy time for other corps.

However, not long after his order was issued, he heard bursts of artillery fire from the east.

His heart tightened immediately. Didn't General Driesen say that the main force of the French was in the southwest? What's the matter with these cannons?

Duden's troops, who had not yet lined up, were bombarded by cannons in the face, and immediately fell into chaos, and began to flee to the Prussian troops further north to seek cover.

The cavalry artillery of the Guards Corps did not expect it to be so smooth.

They had previously raided the vanguard of the Prussian army, originally just to block the enemy and facilitate the infantry to attack the Prussian flank.

Unexpectedly, the nearly 4,000 people of the Brecht Corps of the Prussian Army were bombarded by their 10 six-pounders for several rounds, and the harassment of the Hussars actually caused them to collapse.

Originally, the commander of the cavalry artillery planned to go back and join the main force of the Guards Corps, but the major named Napoleon suggested continuing to approach the middle section of the Prussian Army and launch a surprise attack to support the decisive battle of the infantry.

Finally, Napoleon persuaded his superiors, and the cavalry artillery, under the cover of 400 Hussars, used its mobility to bypass the fleeing Brecht Corps and arrived to the east of the main force of the Driesen Corps first.

Then they found that the Prussians had begun to retreat.

Of course, the cavalry artillery did not show courtesy to the enemy and immediately launched a bombardment.

When the main infantry force of the Guards Corps wiped out the Fein Corps at the fastest speed, they rushed to a few kilometers to the north without stopping, but they did not encounter the main force of the Driesen Corps at all. There were only some enemy corpses and Prussian soldiers who had not yet escaped.

Soon, several rangers who were left behind to liaise reported to Berthier that the cavalry artillery had defeated the Prussian defense line and was cooperating with the hussars to pursue the enemy to the north.

Berthier's eyelids twitched. There were less than 300 cavalry artillery responsible for harassment, plus 10 six-pound cannons and 400 hussars responsible for cover. They actually chased the nearly 20,000 Prussian troops all the way to defeat? !

He hurriedly discussed with several staff officers and ordered the main infantry force to respond to the north at the fastest speed, and at the same time sent a messenger to recall the cavalry artillery.

After all, the number of Prussian troops is too large. If they react and counterattack, the cavalry artillery will probably suffer a devastating disaster.

An hour and a half later, Joseph also rushed to the previous Driesen's headquarters. The battlefield situation was still quite chaotic. Berthier was worried about accidents, so he and the staff strongly begged him to stay in a relatively backward place until he was sure that the enemy had been cleared. Only then did he let him come here.

"Your Highness, our vanguard has now chased to the area around the village of Jaegerver," Berthier reported to him, "and the enemy Brecht Corps that fled to Breslau has also been caught up by the Ranger Battalion."