The French were unaware of the attack and suffered heavy losses in the first wave of attacks. However, the French army quickly launched a counterattack, although the target was not yet within the optimal range, but it was within the range of most artillery, but the accuracy was much worse, but there were fortified bunkers, etc., which were not completely inferior.

However, it took a little longer, and slowly, something was wrong. The Prussians not only outnumbered the French, but also fired significantly more frequently and with a higher rate of hits than the French.

The entire battlefield was filled with a thick white smoke, which was caused by explosives, and the sound of gunfire never stopped for a moment from the beginning. More than two-thirds of the French artillery was destroyed by the rapid Prussian bombardment, and the French artillery retreated with heavy casualties.

At this moment, Marshal McMahon was also seriously injured by the fragments of the shell because he was commanding at the front. By this time, Marshal McMahon felt that his command had completely failed. He knew in his heart that he had been deliberately deceived by Prussia. The artillery that appears on the Prussian side today should be the one called Krupp artillery from the Eastern Empire, and I heard that the person named Krupp used to be a Prussian. The price of this kind of artillery is very expensive, and it is understood that the Eastern Empire does not sell it, and only some can barely be obtained in the black market, not to mention the price, or the original generation of artillery types. And this time, Prussia actually took out so much at once, presumably because they had concealed it before and did not use it, just to surprise themselves, but unfortunately, they succeeded.

Marshal McMahon was seriously wounded and could no longer command the operation, so he had to give command to General Bourbaki, the commander of the Guards, as Napoleon III wanted. Bourbaki, a close vassal of Napoleon III, knew nothing about the battlefield, but was still very confident. Emperor Napoleon III was terrified when he heard that the front was in disadvantage and that the enemy's artillery was sharp, but General Bourbaki told the Emperor not to worry, that he would lead the great French soldiers and the Guards Corps to drive the attacking Prussian army away in two hours.

At this time, King Wilhelm I of Prussia, together with Prince Wilhelm and some nobles, staff officers of the General Staff, and officers of the War Office, arrived on the small dirt slope outside the city of El, and with binoculars in hand, they could almost see the luxurious temporary tent of the French Emperor in the city.

At this time, the Prussian First Army was also really rushing towards the city of El, and the situation on the French side took a turn for the worse. At this time, even Napoleon III sensed that something was wrong, and urged the general Bourbaki, who said that the Prussian army could be defeated in two hours, to quickly send troops to charge and break through.

Bourbaki was already beating the drums in his heart, and he was a little helpless. He was originally a ceremonial officer from a bureaucratic background, although he had been on the battlefield, but it was in Algeria, Africa, armed with muskets to kill scattered African tribes armed with knives, forks and bows and arrows, and hunting was almost no different, no need for any tactics and tactics, and no need to care about the number of opponents. But now, his side was suppressed by the enemy's artillery and could not raise his head in the fortifications, and from time to time he was injured by the fragments of the artillery explosion, and the people around him were fine just now, but suddenly became a broken corpse, this kind of afterimage he had never seen before, and he felt that it was a mistake to be a general for the first time.

But the emperor's urging, he couldn't ignore it, so he could only bite the bullet and directly order the charge! Without any tactical means, and without any measures, they suddenly rushed out of the trench and charged the Prussian army on the opposite side.

But the fire of the Prussian army was so fierce, especially the grenade shells, which exploded in large areas, and the brave French suffered heavy losses. At the forefront of the French army was the 2nd Cavalry Division, led by the famous cavalry general General Garivert, who charged the Prussian infantry camp without fear of life and death, preparing to break the infantry line in front, enter the rear artillery team, destroy the enemy artillery, and at the same time open a passage for the French infantry behind. However, although these cavalrymen were valiant, they lost thousands of men at once in the heavy artillery fire and dense rain of rifle bullets of the Prussian army, and had to retreat because of heavy losses.

Bourbaki was terrified. He knew that this 2nd Cavalry Division was already the most courageous unit, but it was so easily routed that it seemed that it would be difficult to break through the encirclement of the enemy. However, because of the heavy losses in artillery and artillery, only two or three hundred pieces of artillery remained, and the power was greatly reduced, while the enemy's artillery, although there were also many losses, there were at least four or five hundred. The gap between the two engines is even more huge, and they will definitely not be able to support it for long. Once all the artillery is destroyed, there is no point in holding on to the enemy's artillery except for braving the enemy's artillery fire and charging to death.

At this time, the vanguard of the Prussian First Army, that is, two cavalry divisions, escorted four artillery battalions to the battlefield, and the artillery drawn by the First Army was relatively light and suitable for pursuit, and the artillery carriages were drawn much faster than the infantry, so they arrived with the cavalry.

The arrival of this batch of artillery of the Prussian army, and there are two cavalry divisions, and what's more, there is a black line behind, which is obviously the reinforcements of the Prussian army, and I am afraid that there are tens of thousands of soldiers.

Napoleon III also knew at this time that the commander of the Guards Regiment, whom he trusted, was a waste. At this time, Marshal McMahon, who was already seriously wounded, was carried over with great difficulty, and took the initiative to ask Ying to re-command the French army in battle. Napoleon III was so moved that he tearfully agreed to MacMahon's request, and promised to appoint MacMahon as Minister of War and make him Duke if he survived the crisis and returned to Paris.

But at this point, McMahon didn't know where he was making any promises.

At this moment, the Guards Corps of William I of Prussia, taking advantage of the opportunity of the change of commander of the French army and the cover of the First Army of the Prussian Army, bypassed the left side of the French First Army and poured the fire of one hundred and thirty guns on the French artillery position west of the city of El, which was the most dense place for French artillery, and it was also the only place where the artillery defeated the Prussian army in a confrontation, and there were probably more than seventy artillery pieces here. The 130 artillery pieces of the Prussian Guards Corps are imitation of the Krupp field guns, plus the more than 60 artillery pieces that the Prussian army originally left, this concentrated firepower showed an overwhelming effect, after more than ten rounds of artillery, the French artillery and artillery were soon destroyed, and by the way, the French infantry was driven into the nearby Garren Forest, which was already crowded with refuge.

Marshal McMahon, who took over the command, has no good way, even if Napoleon the Great is reincarnated at this moment, it is estimated that he will be powerless.

The Prussian artillery bombardment exploded with extraordinary power at such a rapid and short range, and the ultra-long range of the Dreiser needle rifle made the effectiveness of the combined Prussian firepower truly terrifying. Every time the Prussian artillery shells fell in the French camp, the French screams sounded one after another, and the situation was very bad, half a day after the start of the battle, the French army lost more than 20,000 people, and although the Prussian side also suffered losses, it was only the loss of the artillery attack and the loss of the infantry covering the artillery, which was less than 3,000 people.

McMahon knew that the tide was turning, and even if he wanted to hold on, there was no artillery unit to resist the French bombardment, and it was impossible to hold out until reinforcements arrived. The best thing to do is to break out of the trap desperately.

At this time, Napoleon III was still hesitating, but McMahon couldn't care so much, and directly ordered to break through from the west, with 2 cavalry divisions as the vanguard to fight a bloody road, and the infantry of the 1st and 5th armies of the Guards Corps and the Charon Corps followed behind, broke out of the encirclement of the French army, and advanced in the direction of the Kingdom of Belgium. The reason for choosing the west was that the Prussian army had relatively few troops in this direction, but the only thing that was a little troublesome was that the Prussian army had more artillery and artillery in this direction.

The 1st Battalion of the 2nd Cavalry Division led by Magritte was the first to set out, and the 800-strong French Guards Dragoon Battalion made three charges in a company, but although it showed great valor, it failed each time. The fourth charge, accompanied only by a dozen officers and their close entourage, rushed all the way to the position of the enemy reserve. When they turned back, they were less than five hundred meters from an infantry battalion of the Prussian army, and were well within range of their muskets. But the commander of the Prussian army, probably admiring its bravery, ordered the troops to stop firing, and the French cavalry shouted "Long live the Emperor!" The Prussian officers saluted them and let them gallop by.

But it was only these dozen cavalrymen who rushed through the blockade.

The commander of the Prussian cavalry division immediately sensed the movement and immediately dismissed the commander of the infantry battalion who had let the French cavalry go without permission and sent him to the military discipline inspection team to be tried by a military court. After this lesson, the Prussian army no longer dared to stay behind because of admiration for the bravery of the French army, and began to shoot frantically at the large cavalry contingent of the French army that rushed behind after hearing the news. In this way, it was like a trap to attract the French cavalry to come and send them to their deaths. At the same time, the commander-in-chief of the Prussian army, Marshal Ron, also realized that the French army might want to break through from the west, and immediately dispatched two reserves to the western front to effectively close this loophole.