Just as Hilde was confidently planning how to cruelly slaughter those detestable French artillerymen, he was shocked to discover that the cannons had started to move!
He instinctively looked back and realized he had only run about 400 paces, which should have taken less than 2 minutes.
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That is to say, the French artillery had taken only this brief amount of time to hitch their horses and begin to maneuver!
How was this possible?!
He watched as the French cannons retreated, his eyes almost bursting with bloodshot fury, and immediately gritted his teeth and commanded, “Speed up! We must intercept those cannons!”
Just now, the French mounted artillery had fired at least 9 rounds, inflicting hundreds of casualties on the Dutch Army. Allowing them to escape would severely demoralize our troops.
In an instant, the six squadrons of cavalry started a frenzied gallop, sparing no horse’s strength. Although not yet at a charge, it was already the maximum that the horses could endure at this distance.
However, the French cannons were slipping away exceedingly fast. Hilde estimated that they were nearly matching the speed of a cavalry’s trot.
Especially those carriages shaped like elongated, pointy-roofed houses, which were almost about to drill into the French infantry lines.
By the time his cavalry squad had finally reached the previous firing position of the French mounted artillery, those cannons were already long gone.
Hilde’s deputy panted heavily and said, “Those guys run even faster than foxes…”
Hearing the heavy breathing of the horses and the cavalrymen by his side, Hilde’s brows were also deeply furrowed. The speed at which the French had harnessed their horses was definitely abnormal—no, there was almost no harnessing process at all before the cannons began their retreat.
He naturally did not know that this was a result of the new equipment and combat mode for the mounted artillery brought to the Guard Corps by Joseph.
The cannons were never unstrapped. As soon as the Prussian cavalry was spotted attacking, the gunners immediately spurred their horses into motion. The soldiers on the cannons used winches to close the distance between the cannons and the horses, and finally, with a push that enabled a hook to easily attach, the rear of the gun carriages was secured to the back of the driver’s seat.
As for the ammunition wagons, they were even faster. Pushing the gunpowder boxes and ammunition frames into the wagon, they would just turn and leave. The ammunition wagons were positioned behind the cannons, very close to the horses, so there was virtually no harnessing involved.
The speed of the sensibly designed ammunition wagon was almost no different from that of city buses.
This was the confidence that allowed the Guard Corps’ mounted artillery to dare to bombard the enemy right in their face. In Napoleon’s time, this tactic had a name, called close-quarter cannon fire, commonly referred to as “fixing bayonets on the cannons.”
However, the Guard Corps did not fully implement the close-quarter firing tactic just now, or else they would have directly blown the Prussian cavalry away with canister shots. After all, there was no need for them to fight so desperately in this battle.
In fact, if Joseph hadn’t ordered to take the Dutch infantry formation seriously, Bertier would not have allowed the mounted artillery to show their hand like this.
While Hilde was filled with frustration, a guard suddenly looked towards the distance, “Commander, it looks like French cavalry!”
Hilde quickly focused to listen and indeed, he could faintly hear the sound of horseshoes from the east side.
He immediately felt a tightness in his chest. In the pursuit of the swiftly fleeing French artillery, he had nearly exhausted the strength of the horses. If confronted with a surprise attack from the French cavalry at this moment, his men would be no different from stationary targets.
He hastily ordered that two squadrons stay behind to cover their retreat, while the rest immediately withdrew to their own positions.
However, his warhorse could only trot forward with flaring nostrils, while the sound of hooves from behind grew ever closer.
Finally, the rear-guard cavalry and the Guard Corps engaged in combat.
To be honest, the quality of the cavalry in the Guard Corps really couldn’t match the Junker nobility troops of Prussia—half of them had only learned to ride after entering the Paris Police Academy, whereas those cavalrymen absorbed from the French guards did have some experience.
But at this moment, they were facing what amounted to “fixed targets.” After a flanking charge, the Prussian Cavalry lost their will to resist and began dismounting to surrender en masse.
When Hilde looked back and saw this, his curses against the French artillery grew even more venomous, and then he saw it—those damn mounted artillerymen had circled around behind the French infantry, besting them again from the west less than 200 paces in front of the Netherlands infantry line, beginning to set up their cannons…
At the same time, the infantry line of the Guard Corps was also rapidly advancing forward.
Even though the soldiers of the Southern Netherlands were fervent and the priests among them could stabilize the troops’ morale, when faced with cannons firing grapeshot unceasingly at close range and unable to effectively return fire, it was impossible for anyone to keep their morale from collapsing.
After nearly a thousand soldiers were killed by the bombardment of the French mounted artillery, the first infantry line of the Dutch began to falter. In fact, it was quite remarkable that they held out against about 20 rounds of grapeshot before starting to scatter.
General Witte, seeing the situation of his infantry lines through his telescope, hastily ordered the second line to press forward, while from the main battlefield came the rhythmic beating of the French infantry’s drums.
Bertier timed his command with perfect precision, just as the Dutch were shifting their infantry lines, ordering the Guard Corps to press the attack in column formation.
Immediately, the booming of Prussian cannons could be heard from the hillsides on both sides. Though they were forced to use solid shot due to the distance, they still posed a considerable threat to the Guard Corps.
But soon, the Guard Corps’ mounted artillery quickly maneuvered to the flank of the Prussian artillery positions on the eastern side and began a suppressive attack.
The Prussian artillerymen, with no other choice, turned their cannons to return fire, and the pressure on the infantry of the Guard Corps suddenly eased.
Over a dozen infantry columns swiftly reached 30 paces in front of the Dutch defense line—where the other side was retreating in panic, posing no danger at that distance—and then, with practiced skill, deployed into line formation to unleash a volley of close-range fire on the Netherlands Army.
General Witte’s second infantry line had not yet pressed forward when he heard dense gunfire ahead, followed by his own routed soldiers running headlong towards him.
The Dutch, with minimal training, did not know to retreat to the sides, while the advancing did not know to widen the gaps to let the routed pass, and very soon they were jostling together in disorder.
And the infantry line of the Guard Corps had already appeared a little over a hundred paces away.
…
Blucher was still discussing with his staff how to perfectly encircle the French Army when a messenger hurried into the tent, handing him a report.
Seeing Major Christel’s seal on the wax, Blucher couldn’t help but smile; it seemed Diekirch town must have been taken. This meant that Luxembourg might already be in Christel’s hands by the time he routed the French Army.
He calmly unrolled the paper, but his expression froze—the message read that Diekirch town was heavily garrisoned by the French Army, with no feasible way to begin an assault, and Christel requested to regroup with the main force.
“The French still have forces in Diekirch?” Blucher frowned, passing the note to a staff officer beside him.
Before he could finish speaking, the tent flap was pushed aside once more, this time by a messenger covered in gunpowder residue and blood.
As the messenger handed Blucher the report, he said with a hoarse voice, “General, General Witte’s defense lines have been breached…”
“What?!” Blucher exclaimed in shock, quickly unfolding the report, and indeed saw the news of the Dutch Army’s defeat, with Hilde’s signature below.