On July 3, 1866, on the outskirts of Sadowa, a drizzle fell in the early morning, but this did not affect the coming great war, and the brothers who belonged to the Greater German cultural circle were about to start a fratricidal war today.

When the dawn of dawn gradually tore through the mist, the Elbe Army of the Prussian Army, under the order of General Field, took the lead in the attack from the right flank.

Not to be outdone, the Austrian General Benedek immediately ordered the Austrian artillery group to start a counterattack, and in an instant hundreds of artillery pieces began to tilt tons of steel towards the Elbe Corps, and the sky was full of swishing and screaming shells and white smoke tracks, and for a time the vanguard of the Elbe Corps was blown up.

"Second Artillery Battalion...... Intensive shooting... Blow up these Yankees, artillery will always be the king of the battlefield and the god of war... Fight, open the gates of hell......"

In the middle of the 19th century, it was the period of great development of artillery technology, and the flowering shell began to be popularized during this period, and black powder was slowly abandoned at this stage, and Austrian military experts have always attached importance to artillery, coupled with the strong support of France, the number of artillery under the Austrian army has reached a terrifying 800 guns.

Eight hundred artillery pieces in the middle of the 19th century, is already a rather terrifying storage, this is not the later World War II, now the industrial level of the Western powers is the same thing, steelmaking technology still has a lot of deficiencies, and even in the army there are a large number of bronze artillery deposits.

In this era, the formation of artillery clusters has always been a loser act of burning money, and some military experts in later generations have analyzed why the Austrian side did not popularize the rear-loading needle-pierced rifle in the Austro-Prussian War? Why did it still use the old front-loading rifled guns?

The answer is really a little speechless, the reason is simple, the imperial finances do not allow it, Austria spent a lot of military funds on artillery, which will naturally slow down the upgrade of individual equipment. Replacing all 6,000,000 or 700,000 infantry with the latest muskets is an astronomical amount just to think about.

It was the importance of artillery units that made the Prussians taste the bitterness, and the Elbe Army, which was the first to attack, was blown up and turned over on his back before he could cover the ground under his buttocks.

There were explosions everywhere, flickering fires everywhere, a large number of flowering shells mixed in the solid shells, and a huge shock wave swept across the battlefield, and the Prussian soldiers were thrown into the air like rag dolls, and the severed limbs and arms fell like rain.

The drizzling earth was soft and damp, and it turned into a rain of mud in the explosion of the artillery, crackling down, and all the soldiers in a radius of kilometers saw this spectacle.

At this time, the commander of the Austrian army, General Benedek, was riding a tall horse and patrolling the entire battlefield under the protection of his personal guards, and his binoculars were always staring at the place where the artillery was at its highest.

"Very good, very good, the firing rhythm of the artillery is very good...... It is now time to give the order for the Saxon corps to retreat back, and to immediately enter the high ground and attack by taking advantage of the terrain, and it is time for these arrogant Prussians to suffer a little......"

Under the orders of the general, the Saxon corps, which was confronting the Elbe corps, began to retreat, and soon entered the high ground and began to fire condescendingly at the Prussian army.

The double attack of artillery and rifle bullets put the seven battalions of Prussian troops in the first place into a bitter battle, and the casualty figures soared.

"Stand back, order the soldiers to abandon their positions, and stop the attack...... General Field finally gave the order to withdraw at the critical moment, and this tentative attack finally ended in the defeat of the Prussian army.

The strength of seven battalions is simply a drop in the ocean in such a big battle, and the impact of victory or defeat on the overall battle situation is not very large, just when the Elbe Army turned to the defense, the first army of Prince Karl the old also began to act, and this time it was a large army of 100,000 people who collectively launched an attack, and the entire army formation moved forward steadily like Mount Tai.

At about 9 o'clock in the morning, the 7th Prussian Division took the lead in breaking away from the main column and launched a charge against the Austrian side, and his target was a dense forest directly in front of him, and if he occupied this wood, the Prussian army would naturally get a naturally formed defensive position.

But I didn't expect that the treacherous and cunning General Benedek actually deployed the strength of two armies in the woods, instead of the two divisions shown by the previous intelligence.

Although the overall quality of the Prussian soldiers was slightly higher, and although the Prussian army's rear-loading foreign guns were more advanced, the huge gap in strength could not be ignored, and the 7th Division suddenly fell into a brutal jungle battle.

One division against two armies, I am afraid that all military experts in the world will think that the seventh division will be defeated, and even the commander of the Austrian army, General Benedek, shook his head regretfully.

"Stupid, really stupid, if old Moltke's command level is only a little bit, I'm afraid the battle plan I made before is a bit too much...... Order them to speed up the attack and destroy the 7th Division, I want to be completely annihilated rather than defeated, and remember that the enemy's 7th Division is still tasked with covering the left flank......"

"As long as the 7th Division is eliminated, our two armies can easily go around the enemy's left flank and form a semi-encirclement posture, and then the balance of victory will be ours ......"

At this time, the adjutant beside him asked uneasily, "Your Excellency, we now have an absolute advantage in terms of strength and number of artillery on the main battlefield, but what I am worried about is ......"

"You mean the Second Army, you're worried about William Carr?" asked General Benedek.

"Yes, that's a whole army of 120,000 men, and almost all the Prussian elite is concentrated in his hands, if he suddenly appears on the flank of the battlefield......"

"Impossible," exclaimed the general, "Now that the Second Army is forty kilometers away from the battlefield, do you think they will be able to grow wings and fly over? Not to mention that now that all the telegraph lines have been destroyed, little Karl probably doesn't even know that the war has begun, do you think he has a pair of eyes of God?"

"Austria will not fail, as long as we can fight quickly, if we can defeat the old Moltke before the Second Army arrives, we will be invincible... Of course, I don't have the luxury of annihilating the Prussian army, I only want the victory in the Battle of Sadova, as long as we win here, there will be a stage for diplomats behind me......"

"One victory, combined with the adjustment of England and France, we in Austria could become the masters of the Greater German circle... That's what I want, and that's what I have to get..."

"It's... Your Excellency, Austria will win... The Emperor will win..."There was a neat cry around him.

However, General Benedek was hard-mouthed, he was still very worried about the Second Army of the Prussian Army, how effective the Prussian army was, he knew too well to look at the Seventh Division of the Prussian Army, in the jungle in the face of the attack of the two armies, he actually held out for an hour without collapsing.

What's more, the second army is led by the crown prince himself, where are the elites of the country, and once this iron army appears on the battlefield, the consequences are unimaginable.

Benedek shook his head and whispered a few words to the herald beside him, and soon the cavalryman ran to the rear with the latest order, and in less than fifteen minutes, a whole division of the reserve force with the nickname Thorn Flower began to move westward, and soon broke away from the main battlefield.

While the bitter battle was raging in Sadowa, two mixed battalions led by Xiao Lotian were beginning a forced march to the west along the pre-laid telegraph line.

"Report to the sir, the telegraph line in front has been artificially cut off, a gap of a hundred meters has appeared, and the corpses of our heralds have been found......"

"Where? Hurry up and lead the way......" When Xiao Lotian arrived on horseback, he found that the bushes on the side of the path had been cleared out of a clearing, and the bodies of two Prussian soldiers had fallen to the ground.

Long Ye is a master of examining injuries, he turned over and dismounted lightly, turned over the corpse and looked at it carefully, "It was a penetrating wound of a bayonet, a fatal knife, which shows that the enemy was hiding in the bushes to launch a surprise attack, and there was no trace of a struggle at the scene, indicating that the deceased's attention at that time was all on the telegraph line......"

Long Ye's analysis was recognized by everyone, and all the Prussian soldiers present were in a great atmosphere, especially the reporter Leo who accompanied the army, took out his camera and began to take pictures.

"This is the evidence, I want the whole of Europe to know how despicable and shameless the Austrian army is......"

Xiao Lotian frowned, thought for a while, and suddenly said, "Jonas... Give me the map, and then get a couple of intelligence officers who know the terrain over......"

In a few moments, a huge map was spread out in the clearing, which detailed the topographical map of the Sadowa region.

"Can anyone tell me the general direction of the telegraph line? Who understands telegraph technology? Oh, you know, okay, you can mark the general direction of the telegraph line with a pencil...... Good, good, very good..."

Xiao Letian used his fingers to advance on the map little by little along the line drawn by himself, and from time to time he had to ask various questions about the terrain, and after fifteen minutes, Xiao Lotian put away his fingers and clenched his fists and pounded the earth fiercely.

"The Austrian army's intentions are already very obvious, they just want to break through each one, they want to defeat us before the second army arrives, and now the prince's side is more than forty kilometers away from the main battlefield, I'm afraid they don't know that our side has already started fighting......"

"If it weren't as I expected, the telegraph line ahead would probably be in tatters, and it would be impossible to expect it to be repaired. Damn it, Benedek is really an old ginger, and his methods are really vicious..."

Xiao Letian did not have many memories of the Austro-Prussian War in his mind, he only knew that the chaos of nearly a million people on the battlefield lasted only seven weeks, and finally ended in the victory of Prussia.

But how did the battle proceed during these seven weeks, and how could the two modest forces of his own battalions make a contribution in such a large-scale campaign?

No one gave Xiao Letian answers to these questions, and he could only rely on himself.

This book was first published from 17K Novel Network, the first time to see the genuine content!R405