The first to attack were the Austrian infantry, who approached the French positions in a neat line and with a neat pace, under the command of the drumbeat.

The French artillery began to fire. Shells kept flying into the lines of the Austrian troops, making small gaps in the lines of the Austrians. However, the replenished soldiers immediately stepped forward, and the front returned to its original state in a blink of an eye. This makes the shelling just like throwing a few pebbles into a pond, and although there are a few ripples, the pond is still a pond.

"General, the enemy's artillery is not many." Beside the Duke of Braunschweig, a young officer in his twenties put down the binoculars in his hand and said to the Duke of Braunschweig.

"Ah, Karl, you've noticed that, too." The Duke of Braunschweig nodded, "Logically speaking, the French should not be short of artillery, but there is a serious fugitive in the French army, especially in the technical arms. I'm afraid that what they lack is not artillery, but well-trained artillery. ”

By this time, the Austrian infantry was already not far from the French trenches. The French also began to crackle and shoot. The shooting of the French was very messy and untidy, and the shooting effect was not very good.

"They shot too far and barely managed to form a salvo, apparently lacking training." The Duke of Brunswick commented, "The French army, with their hearts set on the royal family, is unwilling to fight us. So they have to rely on the mob, and the mob has a bit of courage, but war is not about courage alone...... Hehe...... Well-trained gentlemen can always easily defeat the rabble, no matter how numerous they are. Well, this offensive by your army may be able to achieve good results. ”

The French fire was not enough to stop the advance of the Austrian army, on the contrary, the inefficiency of their attacks encouraged the Austrians. And in order to advance to a closer distance before the French fired a shot, the tempo of their drums increased.

"Maybe it's not the turn of the French to play the next round, and we'll be able to rush forward." The young Duke Karl thought as he straightened up on his war horse and looked forward.

But at this moment, he saw a flash of light suddenly appear on the French position in front of him, like a group of stars suddenly appeared on the ground. Then he saw that there were suddenly huge gaps in the line of the advancing Austrian army - it was no longer a matter of throwing a few pebbles into the pond, it was a group of meteors smashed into the pond!

"What is this? What's wrong? Duke Karl was so taken aback that he didn't understand for a moment what was wrong.

The Duke of Braunschweig also quickly raised his binoculars and looked towards the place where the light had just flashed.

Where there had been a sudden flash a moment ago, clouds of smoke were now rising. As soon as he saw the form of gunsmoke, the battle-hardened Duke of Braunschweig judged that it was a cannon firing shotguns. From the place where the smoke rose to the line of the Austrian army, it was only sixty or seventy meters at most, and I really don't know how those despicable French guys hid these cannons so that they didn't even notice them before they opened fire.

Napoleon jumped with excitement as he watched the Austrian army, which had been thrown into disarray by a volley of dozens of his cannons. Then he muttered to himself:

"Great! Is...... It's magnificent! War, how beautiful you are! How pale all the other art of mankind seems compared to you! Minerva, you are the most beautiful goddess! I really don't understand why anyone would refuse to award you a golden apple! ”

At this time, Napoleon could indeed express the feelings of the middle two patients with advanced cancer, because at least for a short time, his artillery mission was over.

Just now, his artillery, for the first time on the official battlefield, played a beautiful artillery ambush. Although before, he led the "Red Army" and had already played similar tricks more than once in confrontation exercises. But this is indeed the first time on the real battlefield.

The artillery of the French was not placed directly on the ground. They dug deep longitudinal trenches in the ground. , the cannon was hidden in the trench from the very beginning, all the parts were under the trench, and when you looked from the front, you could not see anything at all. In front of the cannon, there was a sloping earthen slope, and when the enemy approached, a group of artillerymen pushed the cannon, which had already been loaded with shells, up the slope. At this time, the barrel of the cannon is exposed to the ground, and it is ready to fire at the enemy. After the first cannon is fired, these cannons will retreat down the dirt slope by themselves under the effect of recoil, and disappear from the sight of the enemy. In fact, if needed, the cannons could continue to fire at the earthlings.

But in this battle, Napoleon's artillery only had to fire this round of volleys. Because this round of salvo is also a signal. After this volley, the French volunteers, dressed in blue uniforms, will launch a full-scale counter-charge against the enemy with bayonets. Take advantage of the chaos of the enemy formation, and completely defeat them!

Before the fog of war from the cannon salvo had completely cleared, a blue tide poured out of the French trench and slammed into the Austrians.

The French volunteers were poorly trained, and if everyone lined up to shoot, they were probably no match for the Austrians, but at this time, taking advantage of the complete disarray of the Austrian line, they pounced. Nowadays, skills and queues are no longer available, and courage and numbers have become the masters of the battlefield. The Volunteers, who had a clear superiority in numbers and courage, crushed the Austrians in such a melee almost instantly. Those Austrians who moved a little slower were directly stabbed to the ground by a few bayonets; The quick-witted ones all threw down their weapons, turned and ran, and the French pursued them all the way, until the Prussian cavalry came to the rescue, and they stopped the pursuit and retreated.

The previous experience of fighting with the French stragglers also made the Prussian cavalry not dare to pursue the French, and when they saw that the French gave up the pursuit, they quickly retreated.

In this round of attacks, the coalition forces in front of the French defense line can be said to have hit their heads and bled out. The Prussians were okay, only losing a little cavalry in the initial battle, but the Austrians lost very much, and in this round of attacks alone, they left more than six hundred corpses. Their morale was so baddened that they were unable to launch another attack for the rest of the day.

Now the Duke of Braunschweig was in a dilemma, and his army was no longer able to drive out the French by attack. The Austrians were frightened, and the Prussians were no better—they were not the ones who suffered great losses on the battlefield, but they saw with their own eyes how the Austrians were defeated in front of the French lines. It's the same when they ask themselves to change to themselves. So now, they are also generally war-afraid.

In addition, during this time, the march was difficult, the supply was difficult, and the soldiers did not have enough to eat and did not sleep well. The reason why they can barely maintain their morale is nothing more than two factors: first, they have been winning all the time, and they have not suffered much losses in battle; Second, after conquering Paris, they will surely get enough in return from Paris, which is said to be the richest city on the European continent.

But now, with heavy losses on the battlefield, the first factor does not work; And if you can't defeat the French army in front of you, you can't enter Paris, so the second factor is finished. In this case, it is already good that the army can still maintain the appearance of an army. The Duke of Braunschweig even suspected that if he forced his soldiers to continue the attack, they might mutinied.

But on the other hand, he could not continue to hold on to the French. His logistical supply had always been a major problem, first being dragged down by heavy rain and mud, and then being harassed by various French volunteers. After being thwarted on the battlefield, the intensity of these harassments naturally became more and more intense, so that logistical supplies became more and more difficult.

Rationally speaking, the best option for the coalition forces at this time is to retreat. Militarily, however, retreating in front of the enemy is a much more difficult and dangerous thing than attacking. If you don't get it right, the retreat will turn into a rout, and then it will turn into a rout. A more recent example, like the inexplicable defeat of the French in Belgium not so long ago; A little farther away, it's like the battle of the water in the East Eater. It's a good example of a retreat and then it's all over.

So the Duke of Braunschweig was also reluctant to retreat. The Austro-Prussian army was suddenly plunged into an extremely dangerous, even on the verge of annihilation.

But the victorious Di Mourière also had his troubles. The victory in the defensive battle immediately set the men of Paris on fire. All kinds of demands urging him to hurry up and destroy the enemy kept coming from Paris. It was as if he could really wipe out all those Germans with just one order.

"Hell yes! Those guys in Paris don't know how to do anything! Di Mourier couldn't help but complain to Joseph, "I have in my hands some guys who can't even walk in line, they may be able to be used for defensive battles, but they are used for offensive operations, and they are attacking the enemy who is not much less than us in strength, and that is simply going to die!" ”

"The Parisian side is already very restrained." Joseph replied, "They only sent requests and suggestions, not orders." It's not easy. ”

"I know." "Some guys just want to see me look foreign. They are worried...... If Kano hadn't stopped them, they don't know how many stupid things they would have done! Well, Joseph, do you have any suggestions for the current situation? ”

Joseph was not in a way, he knew that for political reasons, what Paris needed most at this time was to see the invading army driven out of France, and the Prussian-Austrian army actually very much wanted to go back - there was room for maneuver. However, this matter is not politically correct, so why did Joseph tell Di Mourieux?

"General, there is nothing I can do in such a situation, because we have to deal with our government and parliament this time—they are much more difficult to deal with than the Austrians and Prussians." Joseph replied.

"You're right, Joseph." Di Mourier frowned, "But I have to figure out a solution." ”