Bischoff, as a Junker nobility who had participated in the Bavarian succession fight, possessed a fairly solid military competence.
Although he had much contempt for the Austrians’ foolish offensive actions in his heart, he still carefully checked his own infantry line before ordering the skirmishers to strike first, disrupting the enemy’s formation, followed up by the infantry line.
The distance between both infantry lines quickly shrank to just over 300 paces, and Bischoff, upon seeing the increasingly disordered Austrian lines—with the movement on the south clearly slower than that on the north and a particularly slow-moving section in the middle, making the whole look like a broken line—put down his telescope and instructed the orderly officer beside him, “Order the second line to press forward as well. We aim to completely crush the Austrians before Colonel Altermann sends in the cavalry to flank.”
“Yes, Commandant Sir!”
Soon, Bischoff’s reserve infantry line also started moving, charging towards the enemy to the beat of drums.
At the same time, the Prussian skirmishers at the very front also engaged with the Austrian soldiers.
Nearly a hundred skirmishers, using the chaos of rocks on the northern side as cover, drew close to the Austrian infantry line, fired a few random shots, and managed to further mess up the already disordered formations.
Leao had no choice but to order a halt and begin reorganizing troops on the spot.
And at this moment, the Prussian infantry line had arrived within less than 100 paces of them.
Bischoff watched the battlefield situation, which seemed ripe for reaping military achievements, with pleasure. He raised his hand and waved two fingers toward the enemy, saying to the orderly officer, “Full assault now…”
Before he had finished speaking, several columns of soldiers suddenly surged out from the midst of the Austrian’s chaotic infantry line.
He furrowed his brow and once again raised his telescope, only to see that these column formations were very orderly and their charge was incredibly swift.
The most northern column, upon taking a volley from his skirmishers, immediately changed formation.
Those “Austrians,” with their high level of training, required less than half a minute to shift from a columnar into a simple line formation and then, under the officer’s command, unleashed a dense volley at the skirmishers scattered among the rocks.
Bischoff felt something was off about the sound of the gunfire but couldn’t quite grasp what it was at the moment; he only saw his skirmishers stand still as if they had been punched senseless, forgetting even to return fire.
“These fools!”
Standing far away, he couldn’t quite appreciate the terrifyingly quick reformation and precision shooting of the “Austrians,” but the Prussian skirmishers at the front, observing from less than 40 paces away, saw every detail clearly.
The sense of oppression nearly made their spines tingle!
The leader of the skirmishers was the first to react, loudly ordering a dispersal to both sides and a counterattack.
On the short infantry line opposite them, the “Austrians” began to reload quickly. Although a few were hit by the Prussian skirmishers, the others acted as if they hadn’t seen it, their hands moving just as fast.
In just sixteen or seventeen seconds, voices rang out from the infantry line, “Ready,” “Aim.”
Then, a thunderous boom followed as more than 70 guns fired in unison.
Eight Prussians were knocked down by lead bullets, with two of their bodies rolling down the gentle slope. It has to be noted that this was the era of smoothbore guns, and such a high hit rate was simply terrifying!
When the “Austrian” infantry line, led by the standard bearer, pushed forward more than ten steps, the skirmishers scattered among the rocks began to retreat in terror….
The commander of the skirmisher company desperately tried to restrain his men but managed only to halt a dozen or so around him, leaving him no choice but to reluctantly order his entire company to move to the outside of the infantry line. This is why skirmishers require a higher level of training—without a formal formation, soldiers have a lot of autonomy, making it very easy for them to act on their own when facing good or bad situations regardless of orders.
It was not until the skirmisher company commander had retreated out of enemy range that he suddenly realized, didn’t it seem like the officer opposite was commanding in French? Find exclusive stories on My Virtual Library Empire
On the battlefield, other soldiers of the Bischoff regiment soon experienced similar fear.
Those “Austrian Soldiers” speaking French moved forward swiftly. The Prussian infantry line had time only for two volleys before the columns were sixty paces away. Then the two center columns turned sideways on the spot, while the other four columns flanked out to their sides.
After their fourth volley, the Prussians found themselves facing a straight infantry line.
Then came the shrill cry in French, “Aim—”
“Fire—”
An intense explosion of fire and brimstone followed, not like the widespread gunpowder smoke from a typical flintlock gun, but with only light black smoke rising from the muzzles. Next, the Prussian infantry line was sprayed with blood as dozens of men’s lives were taken by the volley.
Blood and limbs fell upon the Prussian soldiers and at their feet, sending shivers down everyone’s spine, but the officers’ shouts soon pierced their ears, “Move it! Load your guns! If you don’t want to get killed, move faster, you idiots!”
The soldiers immediately snapped out of it. Although their minds were blank, their hands reflexively began to prop up their flintlock guns and pull out their gunpowder packs.
The firing rate of the Prussian infantry was renown across the European Continent. In the era of Frederick the Great, they were said to lead other nations’ infantry by one bullet per minute. After William II assumed the throne, although military training was somewhat relaxed, the pursuit of firing speed became even more obsessive—to the extent there were cases of firing without loading bullets to increase the rate.
However, this time the Prussian soldiers were generally still pouring the propellant when they heard from the opposite side in French, “Ready!”
“Aim—”
The Prussians were numb.
Wasn’t this too fast? Both sides had just completed their volleys and began loading at almost the same time, yet while they still had two steps remaining, the enemy was about to fire?!
“Fire!”
With the opposing officer’s loud command, a torrential downpour of lead bullets, backed by the sound of thunder, pummeled the Prussian infantry line, eliciting a new wave of cries and screams along the two-kilometer front.
Prussian soldiers, who had almost finished loading, were now thrown off rhythm and took an additional ten or so seconds to raise their guns under the stern urging of their officers.
Meanwhile, the enemy was almost done reloading for the next round….
After several exchanges of fire, the confidence of the Prussians began to collapse—they had always been proud of their firing rate, yet it was now firmly suppressed by the Austrians; how could they not lose confidence?
Of course, they were unaware that the “Austrian soldiers” opposite them were using caplock guns, which had three fewer steps to load than their flintlock guns, and their training was several times more intense!