I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 456 Eat both ends of the sugar cane

As for the Duke of Brunswick, he is not afraid that the French will deceive him. Everyone pays the money with one hand and releases the person with the other. It is an honest transaction. The main reason is that he has no choice. If he refuses the French proposal, his more than 50,000 people will most likely not be able to keep it.

West of Lignitz.

The town of Wolfenst has returned to Austrian control. At this time, beside the Austrian camp outside the town, hundreds of honor guard soldiers stood neatly on both sides of the road, looking excitedly at the French officers passing by, especially the young man leading them.

The large group of ordinary soldiers behind them shouted loudly regardless of it: "Thank you French brothers, may God bless you!"

"You showed up just in time, long live France!"

"Thank you, Your Highness the Crown Prince, for saving us all!"

How could they not be excited? Originally, the moment the Prussian army broke through the defense line, they all thought they were dead.

At the critical moment, the French Royal Guards suddenly appeared and intercepted the Prussian army that broke into the Austrian-controlled area.

At the same time, the French army also sent cavalry to cover their flanks and help them retreat safely.

Marshal Lacy then gathered the Austrian troops and launched a counterattack against the Prussians. Now the entire war situation is rapidly developing in a direction that is beneficial to them.

The surrounding military music suddenly became excited, and Marshal Lacy came out with dozens of officers.

When he saw the figure of the French Crown Prince, he immediately gestured behind him and saluted with his chest caressing the officers: "Thank you for your help, Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Austria will always remember your help!"

Joseph jumped off his horse, returned the greetings with a smile, and kept saying kind words. The atmosphere was quite harmonious.

Marshal Lacy personally led Joseph towards the camp. After some pleasantries, he suddenly remembered the doubts in his heart and asked hurriedly: "Your Highness, you said you were surrounded by Drison and asked me to send troops for reinforcements, but why did you suddenly appear on the front line of Lignitz?"

Joseph had already thought of his words and immediately crossed himself on his chest and said with a pious expression: "To tell you the truth, the situation was very dangerous and I almost died several times. However, with the blessing of the Lord, One of our artillery shells hit a senior Prussian officer after continuous ricochet, and his troops immediately fell into chaos.

"And I took the opportunity to jump out of the siege and fled all the way back to Lignitz. As soon as I got here, I encountered the Prussians who broke through your defense line. Our army happened to be on the enemy's flank, so we took advantage of the situation and launched an attack. We were lucky defeated them."

All the Austrian officers were stunned when they heard this. This is simply... you wouldn't dare to write this in a novel, right?

Lacy was stunned for a few seconds and hurriedly made the famous sign of the cross on his chest: "Ah! God is taking care of you. Your Highness, you are so lucky."

The group entered the camp, and it was still some time before lunch. Due to the fierce fighting situation, Marshal Lacy asked the French Crown Prince to rest first while he would hold a combat meeting.

When Joseph heard this, he looked at Berthier and others beside him: "The enemy is facing us now, let's join the meeting together."

Marshal Lacy didn't say much. After all, the war situation was the most important thing, so he invited Joseph and others to enter a farmhouse together. This is his temporary command post.

There are a large number of maps and combat documents placed in the living room of the farmhouse. It was obvious that Lacy and others had been having a meeting here before.

At Lacy's signal, an officer briefly introduced the current deployment of the Austrian army, and then said: "The situation on the battlefield is roughly like this. The Marshal plans to wait until the legions of General Davydov and General Conrad return. , first of all, strengthen the troops at the gap in the defense line, and then encircle the enemy forces on the west side of the defense line from three directions.

"Currently, the enemy's core is the Andreas Corps, relying on the low hills to the north of Bald Village for defense. If we want to defeat them, we must first attack the highlands on both sides..."

Joseph looked at the energetic Marshal Lacy, listened patiently to the officer's explanation of the combat deployment, and then said with a solemn expression: "Marshal, your deployment is foolproof. However, do you think it is necessary to completely annihilate these more than 50,000 Prussian troops?" how long?"

Lacy said without hesitation: "It will take about 5 to 7 days to mobilize the troops."

After all, a large number of troops are in Ratibor. Time is very tight to withdraw and take a short rest.

"If the battle goes well, the Prussians can be defeated in a week. Even if they resist, I am confident that the battle will be over within half a month."

Although the Prussian army was cut off on the west side of the Lignitz defense line, it was an army of more than 55,000 people and was well organized. If it really wanted to resist resolutely, it would take a lot of effort to annihilate it.

Joseph nodded: "So, after annihilating this enemy army, what will you do next?"

Marshal Lacy said with a smile on his face: "Of course we will continue to attack eastward, recapture Lignitz in one fell swoop, and then march to Breslau."

"Did you think it would go that well?"

"Huh?" Marshal Lacy was a little confused, "What do you mean, Your Highness?"

He did not take this young man seriously before, but just the day before yesterday, the latter had just saved his army from a certain death crisis. How could he dare to despise his opinions again?

"You just said that it will take about half a month to a month to annihilate the enemy forces on the west side of the defense line." Joseph said, "Such a long time is enough for the Duke of Brunswick to re-strengthen the Lignitz defense line.

"Even if we have the strength advantage, we will still face a difficult battle."

He paused and sighed: "Maybe it will take half a year, or even longer, to break through that line of defense.

"And you also know that public opinion in Vienna believes that you have already recaptured Liegnitz. If you delay for so long, you will probably face considerable pressure by then."

There are more than 200 cannons on the Prussian defense line. Even if the Austrian coalition has an advantage in manpower, it dare not say that it can be captured quickly. Of course, Joseph's saying that it would take half a year is a bit exaggerated.

Marshal Lacy heard this and his face turned bitter: "You are right, Your Highness. But this is the best tactic I can think of. If His Majesty the Emperor blames me for not fighting well, then I can only..."

Joseph shook his head and said: "Your Excellency Marshal, in fact, we have a great opportunity now. The Duke of Brunswick previously transferred a large number of troops, which led to chaos in the defense line. In addition, the soldiers were defeated just now, and their morale was low.

"If we mobilize all our forces and attack the southern defense line, we may be able to break through it in one fell swoop."

Marshal Lacy also shook his head: "Your Highness, there are at least 90,000 defenders on the Prussian defense line, and it may not be easy to break through quickly.

"Besides, we can't ignore the more than 50,000 enemy troops on the west side of the defense line, otherwise once we start attacking the defense line, they will immediately attack us from behind."

Joseph was waiting for him to say this, and a sly smile flashed in his eyes: "Marshal, what if I can transfer the soldiers on the enemy's defense line and prevent the 50,000 Prussians from causing trouble?"