The breakout operation has begun, and it cannot be stopped. Although this direction no longer had an advantage, the military order, coupled with the prestige of Marshal McMahon in the army, even the artillery fire of the Prussian army in front did not stop at all, and the French soldiers still rushed forward desperately.

But in any case, it was impossible to break through the encirclement positions of the Prussian army. Moreover, the French army charged like this, which was too much of a loss. Thousands of soldiers rushed to the temporary defense line of the Prussian army, and before they could get close, they were bombarded by several rounds of artillery, and when they got closer, the muskets of the Prussian army were also crazy, and the terrain and firepower were superior there, and the French army was useless even if they were heroic, and they followed the cavalry to rush several times because of the great losses and retreated.

At the same time, three other directions, northern, eastern, and southwest, three groups of Prussian infantry began to approach in the direction of Elcht. The Prussian cavalry moved between the three groups of infantry, allowing the two infantry armies to cooperate with each other, and more than 400 guns in these directions, pulled by horses and donkeys, men, etc., followed by them, slowly moving forward, approaching the French barracks under the walls and the city of El.

A little more than an hour later, the Prussian army went on the offensive. The artillery opened fire frantically, and shells continued to fire from a distance at every point of the entire French barracks position, falling in front and behind the soldiers in the French barracks. Cannonballs flew sideways, flesh and blood splattered, and shouts and cries shook the ground. In the outer cavalry team of the French army, many of the heroic cavalry have disappeared, and it is estimated that most of them were killed by the explosion or fell off their horses, and no one rode on the horses, and they scurried in groups of three or two, which also meant that the cavalry team outside the French barracks was finished.

As the Prussian army advanced, the French army shrank its defensive line, but fortunately, Marshal McMahon built a second line of defense and barely held out for two or three days. However, the artillery of the Prussian army advanced rapidly, and although the French had a small number of remaining artillery to interfere from time to time, after all, the number was too small, and the range was not superior, and they were successively blown up by the enemy's artillery.

However, relying on the stubborn resistance and counterattack of the French army's Chalond army, the closer it was to the city of El, the fiercer the French army's resistance became, and the bullets were exported as if they didn't need money, and the losses of the Prussian army gradually increased. But on the whole, the French army was still suppressed by the Prussian army, but the two sides consumed the lives of their respective soldiers.

But at this time, McMahon was not giving up, he knew that he could not hope that the troops of Paris or Belgium would come to the rescue, and it was impossible to hold on, so he could only break through and rush out on his own. However, after several failed breakthroughs, Emperor Napoleon III was already a little desperate, and he ordered all the soldiers to defend the city of El and have all the soldiers demolish the brick and stone houses in the city for the repair of the fortifications of the city walls.

At this time, the news came that on the Belgian side, 20,000 troops were already lined up on the 8-kilometer border not far away, and Napoleon III was immediately overjoyed. Marshal MacMahon told him, however, that it was impossible for such a small Belgian army to fight Prussia, and that they were merely posturing that the Prussian army would not invade their Belgian territory.

Although Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries all declared war on the Kingdom of Prussia, aided Tsarist Russia to protect Tsarist Russia, and took the opportunity for Tsarist Russia to give a series of benefits, but in fact they were more on the sidelines before the decisive battle between France and Prussia was decided, and even the powerful Britain did not send an army to attack the Kingdom of Prussia, but only sent two fleets to attack the Prussian fleet and coastal ports in the Baltic Sea, and adopted a strategy of supporting the Danish army to attack, which is very revealing.

Although they are afraid of the rise of the Kingdom of Prussia after taking the opportunity of unifying the German Confederation and annexing a large part of the territory of Tsarist Russia, they are more afraid of their own confrontation with Prussia's powerful army, but they all preserve their strength, because they choose to wait and see, that is, after the decisive battle between France and Prussia, no matter whether they win or lose, Prussia will lose its strength, and everyone also thinks that Prussia cannot win, after all, France is an old military power, and now after the decline of Britain and the disintegration of Tsarist Russia, France has become the most powerful empire in Europe.

Sure enough, a whole day passed without the slightest movement of the Belgian army. On this day, the Prussian army launched an even more frantic attack, hundreds of artillery shells bombarded the French camp in the city of El, and shells rained down on the French positions. The entire city of El, and even the French fortifications outside the city, were all a sea of fire, filled with gunsmoke. The French suffered numerous casualties, and the rest hurried into the fortress. McMahon was also injured again, and he was already seriously injured and on the verge of death.

However, the attacking Prussian army did not feel good, although the balance of victory tipped in their favor. Anxious for victory, the Prussian attack was a little chaotic, and thinking that after the artillery fire, the French should lose most of their resistance, Wilhelm I rejected Marshal Ron's suggestion to steadily bombard with artillery, and ordered the artillery bombardment to be stopped, and the infantry charged directly, rushing in from the several walls of El that had collapsed, to end the battle. William I wanted to end the war as soon as possible, fearing interference from the rest of Europe, and other variables about the imminent victory. Moreover, the use of artillery shells to bombard, the cost is expensive, during this period of intensive bombardment, the shells carried have been used up more than half, and the daily shell consumption is the wealth of hundreds of thousands of millions of marks. He wanted to save a little.

Unexpectedly, when the Prussian army charged densely, it encountered a lot of mines planted by the French army in advance and the only remaining more than 100 artillery pieces, as well as tens of thousands of soldiers at the same time The dense bullets were shot, and the Prussian army also suffered heavy losses.

As a last resort, William I accepted Marshal Ron's suggestion, and the infantry covered the artillery from a distance, using the artillery advantage to suppress first, attrition of the French army at any cost, destroying the last will of the French to resist, and even forcing the French to surrender.

Because of the analysis of Ron and the intelligence officers of the General Staff, the French army marched and retreated in a hurry, and did not carry much food, and the city of Eyre was a small city, and there was not much food originally stored in the city for consumption, and according to the level of fire of the French army, the consumption of bullets and gunpowder was also a big difficulty, and in half a month at most, the French army should run out of ammunition and food, and at that time, the French army must have to surrender obediently. The only concern is whether Paris will send troops to the rescue. However, as long as the Prussian Second Army was mobilized in advance to intercept it halfway, even if Paris sent troops, it could be intercepted halfway, and as long as it lasted for a week, it would be a great victory.

By this time, Napoleon III in the city of El was in complete despair. He rejected Marshal McMahon's proposal before his death to make an all-out breakthrough to return to Paris, and directly announced his intention to surrender, and Marshal McMahon was so angry that he was dying.

Napoleon III ordered the commander of the Fifth Army of the Chalond Corps, General de Wimpfen, to be the commander-in-chief of the entire French army, and asked him to come forward to put the army in order to surrender. General de Wimpurfen outright refused to accept the appointment, quarreled with Napoleon III, and angrily decided to call on soldiers who were willing to continue fighting the Prussian army to attack the Prussian army, but as a result, not many people paid attention. But General de Wimpfen ignored it, and he gathered more than 1,500 men and four artillery pieces and thirty horses, and led them to attack the Prussian army outside the city, which was really a mad act. As soon as this group of crazy warriors was half a mile out of the city, they were immediately routed by a heavy rain of bullets from the Prussian army, and all but a hundred of them fled into the nearby forest, and the rest, including General de Wimpfen, were all killed heroically.

Napoleon III was actually heartbroken, but he was even more heartbroken for his own safety. He ordered the commander of the 7th Corps of the Charlons, Dicro, to be the commander-in-chief of the entire French army, responsible for drawing up the order for a general ceasefire. Dicro complied and drafted the order for total surrender, but he refused to sign it, saying that the commander-in-chief of the French army was still D. Wimpfen and wanted to get him back to sign. At the same time, the chief of the French General Staff, Edmond Leboeuf, also refused to sign it, and they all considered it a disgrace to the military.

Napoleon III was very helpless and furious, and directly ordered the dismissal of Dicro and Edmund Leboeuf, and at the same time appointed his dog-legged - the commander of the Royal Guard, Bourbaki, as the commander-in-chief of the French army again, responsible for the surrender to the Prussian armistice. At this time, Bourbaki showed his strong side, directly planting a white flag at the head of the city of El, and then sending his confidant, General Lehrer, to the Prussian military camp to deliver the emperor's handwritten surrender letter.

Inside the French army, most of the French soldiers did not object to the planting of the white flag. But three infantry battalions of the First Army of the Chalond Corps and one of the cavalry battalions of the reserve cavalry division expressed strong opposition, rallying the soldiers to ask to see the emperor, which was refused, and the deputy commander of the First Army and the commander of the reserve came to order them to lay down their arms and return to the barracks to wait for the order, they knew that the surrender had become settled, and angrily objected, and nearly 2,400 soldiers rushed out of the city of Eyre and marched at the Prussian army, most of them were shot, and the remaining half either fled back or scattered.