The next day, the almost frightened Emperor Napoleon III had already handed over the post of commander-in-chief (not only commanding the Rhine Corps, but also commanding the Chalond Corps) to Marshal Bazin, and now he himself led his retinue to break away from the troops and rush to Chalon, instructing Bazin to retreat from southeast to west to Chalons according to the original plan. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 On the same day, the Prussian army, which had just intercepted the retreating French army, did not know that this was the total retreat of the 180,000-strong army of the Rhine Army, and thought that the French army was outnumbered, and continued to attack some of the French troops stranded east of Metz. General Bledau's cavalry brigade rushed into the dense formation of the French army, this charge, later known as the "Bledau Death Charge", the Prussian army simply broke through the two dense fire nets of the French army, but was surrounded by the French cavalry, and finally only half of the troops broke through the siege and killed back. Later, in the valley of Yeron, there was another battle in which 8,000 cavalry of the Franco-Prussian army charged head-on. On the third day, the Prussian 3rd Army launched another onslaught against the French. The three-day battle was the fateful Battle of Fairville, and both sides were now facing their bases: the French were to flee for their lives to the west, while the Prussian were to push the French back to Metz Fortress in the east, and it was a desperate battle for the French army. The Prussian army lost 23,000 men and the French army lost 42,000 men, and the French army finally succeeded in breaking through at the cost of huge casualties.

On August 17, the Prussian army continued to launch an all-out attack on the French army, and the whole army of both sides entered a fierce battle, with the Prussian army losing 40,000 people, the French army losing 23,000 people, and another 7,000 people being captured. As a result, Bazin had to abandon his outlying positions and hold on to the fortress of Chalon. After this battle, Bazin's French Rhine Army was able to hold the fortress of Chalon, and the Prussian offensive was stopped. During the day's battle, Prussian kings Wilhelm, Bismarck, and Moltke were all spectators. Bismarck received news that his two sons had been killed, and he personally rode to the front to inquire about it, only to learn that it was a false alarm, and that his sons were only slightly wounded. The Prussian 1st Army was once disorganized due to heavy losses in the battle against Chalon, and Moltke personally led the Pomeranian Army to attack to easily stabilize the situation.

After the French army withdrew to Chalon, together with the original reserve corps here, they formed the French Charon Army. On 16 August, Napoleon III gathered his forces at Chalon. The total strength of the French Charlon's corps was twice as large as the Rhine corps at Metz, with a total of 260,000 men, but it was a mixed bag, and the command system was unclear, and there were many policies: the commander-in-chief of the French army was Marshal Bazin, and after days of fighting, McMahon had lost his heart, and he even advocated retreating to Paris, but Napoleon III did not have a master as before, but ordered to hold on. At this time, Empress Eugenie, who was in Paris, wrote to inform the emperor that if he fled back to Paris, a revolution would immediately break out in Paris, and that the "revolutionary masses" in France would finally have a say in grand strategy. On 22 August, the Emperor finally decided to remain in the army and command the battle.

At this juncture, the sun rises happily, indicating that it will be hot at noon. A golden glow floated over the trees, and a white mist rose from the low-lying pastures. Clean and beautiful villages, waking up in coolness, fields with rivers and springs, as charming as bouquets with dew. But this beautiful day did not bring laughter to anyone. For the people had just seen the emperor and the crown prince circling the fortress, and he looked at the neighbouring houses, and then went to the other side of the river, and from there he observed the terrain with a telescope; A general accompanied him, as if to explain something to him. The general then set up sentry posts behind the walls, behind the trees, and in the caves.

The crown prince Eugène Louis bit his lip, a wrinkle of indignation appeared on his forehead, and from time to time he stood on tiptoe, his eyes fixed on the direction of the woods, as if he wanted to see the Prussian army coming. His adjutant was pale and walked around solemnly, giving them what the soldiers needed. They were cooking thick soup in a corner of the yard, some were joking and joking, waiting to eat.

"This is a real fortress," he said, "and we can hold on......... The robbers can't get in. ”

The emperor listened to him and did not say a word. He was still sitting, his saber between his legs, and his eyes were fixed into the distance, as if in a dream.

It's ten o'clock. It's hot. There was a dreary silence. The soldiers were already drinking thick soup in the shadow of the open canopy in the courtyard. There was not a sound in the village, and the residents all blocked their doors and windows. A dog was left alone on the road, barking non-stop. From the drowsy heat of the woods and the neighboring pastures, there was a distant, long sound, synthesized by a diffuse breeze. A cuckoo chirped a few times. Then there was even more silence.

In the sleeping air, a gunshot suddenly rang out. The general hurriedly stood up, and the soldiers put down the soup pot that was still half left. In less than a few seconds, all of them were on their combat posts; The fort was full of people. The general was now on the road, and he could see nothing; The road stretched out to the left and right, and it was white, and there was no one. The second gunshot rang out again, and still nothing could be seen. There was not even a figure, but when he turned around, he saw the woods on the other side, between two trees. A small cloud of smoke rose up like a gossamer floating in the air, and the woods were still so deep and quiet.

Between the French soldiers defending the area and the Prussian troops hiding behind the trees, they opened fire on each other, and the gunfire became more and more intense. Yu Dan swooped across the river, but there were no casualties on either side. There are no rules for the sound of gunfire, and there are gunshots coming out of every bush. But all you could see was the light smoke that was blown slowly by the wind. Nearly two hours passed like this. The Emperor stood on tiptoe and peered out through a low wall. They were particularly interested in the little soldier, who stood behind an old hull by the river, who lay on the ground and watched, shot at every opportunity, and then crawled into a ditch not far behind him to load his bullets, and his movements were so funny, so cunning, so nimble, so nimble that no one could help but smile when he saw them. He must have seen the head of a Prussian soldier, for he was scrambled to his feet, and put his gun to his shoulder to aim, but before he could shoot, an enemy shell flew and exploded not far from him, and he screamed, and rolled over and fell into the ditch, and twitched stiffly like the paws of a freshly slaughtered chick. He was hit by shrapnel in the chest. This is the first person the emperor has seen killed today.

"Your Majesty, you'd better not stay here any longer." The general said with some concern, "The enemy's shells will come in a while." ”

As if to confirm his words, sure enough, just as he finished speaking, with the sound of whistling, one shell after another flew over, and exploded in the distance in the surrounding French positions.

Napoleon III could see without a telescope that the Prussian shells had drowned the French positions on the ground in smoke and splashes of earth. Many French soldiers were hit, some were blown to pieces, and some died on the spot, some fell to the ground screaming, and Napoleon III couldn't help but feel a pang in his heart when he saw a Prussian cannonball fall on a platoon of guns, blowing the ammunition wagons and the platoon gunners to pieces.

He remembered Lin Yizhe's suggestion in the letter about the use of the Lifei platoon gun, and couldn't help but secretly regret it.

“…… If the Flying Platoon Gun is used against the enemy's rifle fire, it will definitely be successful, because the Platoon Gun fires rifle ammunition and has the same range as small arms. But if you insist on using it against the enemy's field artillery, you will inevitably fail, because this work is not at all what a platoon gun is capable of......"

In fact, in the Battle of Saarbrügen, the French army used the rifle for the first time, although it was only a skirmish, but the French thought that the rifle would be a weapon that would help them win. But later battles showed that the results of this confidence were catastrophic. The platoon guns in the same open position as the French artillery immediately became a striking target, and were destroyed by the Prussian artillery at the beginning.

In fact, with the exception of the French themselves, most European countries knew the details of the platoon of guns, and the Prussians were no exception, and they quickly found a way to deal with the platoon. In the first confrontation with the platoon guns, the Prussians had only a few hundred soldiers hiding in bunkers along the entire route of the French infantry division, while many more soldiers were scattered to form a defensive line, which made it extremely difficult for the platoon guns to exert their power. During the battle, the French used platoon guns against the field artillery of the Prussian avant-garde. After the French positions were bombarded by the Prussian army, in order to return fire, they immediately mobilized a platoon gun battalion to move to the front and set up on some unprotected earthen platforms. The Prussian artillery soon discovered the French platoon gun positions, and in the ensuing shelling, the French platoon guns were almost completely destroyed by Prussian artillery fire and had to be forced to retreat.

Despite a string of defeats, the stubborn French did not learn their lesson and continued to engage their platoon guns and artillery at the same time, while the Prussian Krupp artillery could destroy them without much difficulty. The French stubbornly used the platoon guns as artillery, with disastrous results, but there was also a hidden reason - the platoon guns were too heavy to fight with the infantry.

The Prussian artillery was still firing, some of the poorly concealed French units were dealt terrible blows, and in less than ten minutes, Napoleon III saw almost a hundred French soldiers killed and wounded, but he was relieved that many French soldiers remained calm in their positions, waiting for the enemy to attack and give the enemy a fierce return fire.

――――Dividing Line――――

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