Upon the spacious and smooth King’s Avenue in France, nearly twenty thousand soldiers of the French Army were marching in a column too long to see the end, advancing briskly amidst resounding songs.
In the middle of the troop, the young Napoleon, much like one nestled close to a lover, clung tightly to a tall ammunition wagon, pulled by four horses.
Well, others were sitting on the wagon, but he preferred to walk beside it, so he could admire and touch it from every angle.
It was the latest model of Mounted Artillery produced by Joseph’s gemstone carriage company.
Joseph had instructed craftsmen to prototype it over half a year ago, and it was only completed a few months back. The first batch consisted of more than twenty units, all issued to the Guard Corps.
This Mounted Artillery, resembling a long wooden hut in size, was based on Napoleon’s later horse-mounted cannons, of course, with some necessary improvements.
The concept of Mounted Artillery was created by Frederick the Great during the Seven Years’ War.
Simply put, Mounted Artillery involved providing enough horses for cannons and gunners, enabling full mobility by dragging them along, which significantly increased the movement speed of the cannons and greatly enhanced the flexibility of artillery tactics.
However, early Mounted Artillery had various shortcomings. For example, the process of repeatedly tying and untying the ropes connecting the cannons to the horses led to long preparation times.
The prevailing view of the era held that Mounted Artillery took more than a third longer to get ready to fire compared to regular artillery.
Additionally, Mounted Artillery was not suitable for heavy cannons. Usually, it was very difficult to move cannons weighing more than 6 pounds rapidly with horses—12-pound cannons required eight horses to drag, and it was already a sign of well-trained soldiers to keep the horses from going astray, let alone trying to move quickly.
Therefore, at the end of the 18th century, most countries primarily equipped regular artillery, supplemented by a small number of Mounted Artillery units.
However, Napoleon, a genius with cannons, pushed the advantages of Mounted Artillery to the extreme, even converting all cannons in certain corps to Mounted Artillery.
He had numerous innovations in the use of Mounted Artillery. For example, Mounted Artillery would use their speed to quickly advance, fire a few volleys in the face of the enemy, and then retreat swiftly. Or he would assign Mounted Artillery to cavalry units, rushing and bombarding alongside the cavalry.
In summary, after him, the importance countries placed on Mounted Artillery increased exponentially.
But at this moment, Napoleon was still a newbie drooling over the Mounted Artillery wagon.
In history, Napoleon’s Mounted Artillery had two primary core pieces of equipment—the horse-drawn cannon and the ammunition wagon.
The object that Napoleon was currently “cuddling and licking” was the later common “big top wagon” or ammunition wagon.
This device integrated all the logistic support for the cannon, allowing for the rapid deployment of ammunition and gunpowder during combat and quick storage when moving, ready to be dragged away by horses.
This was much more convenient and time-saving than Frederick’s Mounted Artillery’s use of separate gunpowder wagons, ammunition wagons, and tool wagons, all of which had to be harnessed with horses.
Speed was Mounted Artillery’s greatest advantage.
Joseph also integrated the structure of modern trucks into these wagons, adding wheel chocks and designing the gunpowder and cannonball modules with a slide structure. The lids of the boxes were fitted with automatic latches—designed by King Louis XVI himself, sturdy and reliable.
With these changes, the preparation time for firing the cannon was reduced by a significant seven or eight seconds compared to the original version in history.
Moreover, Joseph added six seats to the ammunition wagon for the gunners to sit on. Historically, the “big top wagon” didn’t allow soldiers to ride; the gunners had to run beside it on foot.
But having a wagon and not riding it is something no one could endure. So the gunners sat on the roof of the ammunition wagon, essentially on the sloping French-style roof. Although their buttocks certainly suffered, they bore it if they wanted to slack off.
Joseph knew it would be exceedingly difficult to enforce the rule of not allowing gunners to ride, so he simply provided seats for them, which at most meant adding another horse. This also increased the mobility speed of the Mounted Artillery considerably.
As for the cannons, Joseph made some improvements there as well, mainly adding a type of coupler between the carriages, like the ones found between modern train cars.
Do not underestimate this modification; when the Mounted Artillery needed to relocate, it greatly reduced the time it took to harness the cannons to the horses, and the operation became more convenient.
Another addition was a winch on the gun carriage.
During cannon fire, horses had to be kept at a distance to prevent them from getting spooked. As such, a lot of time was wasted harnessing horses every time they switched between firing and moving.
Therefore, during Napoleon’s era, the Mounted Artillery invented a unique operation—the ropes connecting the horses to the cannons were left very long, and the harnesses were not removed during firing. That way, when they needed to maneuver, they only needed to tighten the ropes to be immediately on their way.
Joseph took it a step further by eliminating the need to gather the ropes; the horses would simply drag the long ropes and move directly, while the cannoneers slowly reeled in the ropes using the winch on the gun carriage.
This was truly a case of “ready to fight and run”!
Fondly touching the fascinating new Mounted Artillery wagon, Napoleon recalled the tactics of the Mounted Artillery he had trained and felt a surge of excitement within.
If these exquisite tactics and fine weapons could be used to equip the Corsican National Guard, it would greatly enhance their combat effectiveness.
He took a deep breath, thinking that coming to Verdun this time was absolutely the right decision.
The troops would soon reach Luxembourg, where they would battle the Prussians, and he would gain experience in actual combat, growing into a true General!
…
In the central western part of Luxembourg, Winceler.
Blucher, watching through his telescope as a hundred or so Austrians fled the town in a panic, said to the orderly officer without expression:
“Leave one battalion to garrison, the rest rest in place for 1 hour, then continue south. Before tomorrow afternoon, I want to take Diekirch.”
After crushing Leao’s main forces, the fighting became extremely easy, to the point of boredom for him.
Just like the recent attack on Winceler, he only ordered a dozen rounds of artillery fire before the defending Austrians ran away.
It was predictable that tomorrow’s assault on Diekirch would mostly be the same. And after taking it, the road to Luxembourg City would be unimpeded.
There should still be about 1,600 of Leao’s troops left, while he had brought ten times the number of soldiers; taking Luxembourg City was without doubt.
His aide-de-camp suddenly rode over, handing him a document sealed with wax:
“General, from Potsdam, four days ago.”
Blucher opened the seal and immediately frowned slightly, looking up at his aide-de-camp:
“The French have entered the war. Although General Delrisen defeated them at Legnica, this is a very dangerous signal.” Discover hidden content at My Virtual Library Empire
He gave a flick of his reins:
“Order a faster march, we must resolve the situation here as soon as possible and then return to Silesia to reinforce His Grace the Duke.”
Just then, two Hussars rode up quickly, shouting towards him:
“General, a large enemy force was spotted 2 miles to the south! Their numbers could be several thousand.”
Blucher was startled by the news. Could it be Austrian reinforcements? How could they arrive so quickly?!