In terms of the size of the force, the Germans were on the inferior side. The 2nd and 3rd German Divisions under the command of Blücher www.biquge.info sounded very large, but in fact there were only about 13,000 men, while the Prussian army under the command of Karl I amounted to 32,000 men, and the Saxon army had more than 10,000 troops scattered across the entire front. And in Southern Bohemia, the Austrian corps was also being assembled, Franz? Moritz? Feng? The 26,000-strong Austrian army led by Field Marshal Count Lassi was also preparing to march. It can be said that at the beginning of the Battle of Leipzig, the situation was extremely unfavorable to the German army.

The German General Headquarters had originally believed that the Allied redeployment would take longer, and that Marnes was also aggressive in his overall strategy, hoping to capture as much territory as possible and thus draw more strength before Austria and Prussia went into a major fight. However, this bold strategy also allowed the Germans to expand the overall defensive range with limited forces.

Of the four divisions that had been reorganized, the 1st Division, which was on the front line of Leipzig, was still in Hamburg, defending against Prussia, Mecklenburg and even Denmark from attacking from the north and shaking the capital of the present German Republic. The First Division is also the largest division of the German army at this stage, with more than 8,000 troops and is equipped with a large number of heavy weapons. The 4th Division, the smallest of about 5,000 men, had just finished fighting against the Austrian army in Belgium, and although it suffered little losses, after the Battle of Leipzig, Marnes urgently moved the 4th Division eastward to support the German forces in Leipzig. At this time, Marnes and Blucher were also worried about Württemberg and Bavaria, which had clearly joined the alliance. They are all in the south of the republic. In an environment where the German army was limited. It is equivalent to exposing the soft belly of the republic to Württemberg and Bavaria. Although the military strength of these two states was not very good, if they marched from the south with the Austrians and took a great detour, the German army would be cut off from the rear and face an even more dangerous situation.

However, the German Republic and the National Revolution were not completely without resistance. First of all, the National Revolution armed a large number of revolutionary masses and formed the People's Guard. Although the combat effectiveness of these people's guards is somewhat inferior, they are very large. In addition, if you fight in Hongo, you can contain a large number of enemy forces with proper tactics. Marnes had even planned that once the coalition forces came from the south, on the one hand, the National Revolutionary Committee would organize the People's Guards to hold their strongholds and carry out brutal siege warfare to deplete the enemy's morale and strength, and on the other hand, they would break the People's Guards into pieces and carry out all kinds of harassment operations against the enemy, that is, guerrilla warfare, so that the enemy could feel the quagmire of the people's war.

After all, the spread of internationalism in the region was very smooth, with the support of the majority of the population, and the nobles and their lackeys were either arrested and liquidated. Either they will flee by themselves, and there will be no aristocratic rebellion in the areas controlled by the German Republic.

At this time, the Germans also captured about 20,000 princes. Marnes hoped that these captives could be quickly reformed and then organized into German troops to join the battle, of course, rashly using the "liberated" troops would face trust problems, and both Marnes and Blucher would be afraid that these original aristocratic armies would stab them in the back, and for the time being, they still did not dare to use such troops.

When Marnes learned that the Austro-Prussian army was gathering and preparing to engage the Germans in Saxony, he was somewhat flustered. After all, the size of the enemy army was several times the size of its own side, and although the German army had a certain advantage in equipment, the previously routed Saxon army, after regrouping, organized a defensive line on the White Magpie River on the west side of Leipzig, and its combat goal was to hold on until the Prussian army led by Karl I arrived from the rear.

The German 2nd Division, which started from Weimar and 3rd from Altenburg, defeated the Saxon army before finally meeting southwest of Leipzig to face the Saxon army's ultimate defensive line. At this time, the Prussian army was nearly 100 kilometers away from Leipzig and would take several days to arrive. There are no railways in Saxony, so there is no way to transfer troops by rail, and there are no particularly good roads, and of course the Prussian army does not have as many military trucks as the Tang army, so the speed of marching on two legs is very limited.

Facing the Saxon army on the White Magpie River defense line alone, Blucher was still relatively confident, there was not much difference in the strength of the two sides, and the German army's firepower was comprehensively superior. Artillery alone, the German artillery unit composed of the former German Corps has more than 200 artillery pieces, including four fully equipped 105mm howitzer artillery battalions, all of which are equipped with the early model S1775 artillery that the Tang Army was originally equipped with, that is, the M101 in another plane. Four battalions of 105-mm howitzer artillery are 72 guns, so the power of the German artillery group is extremely great.

At this time, Blucher made a very dangerous decision in the face of a strong enemy, he left behind the 7,000 men of the 2nd Division, and began to storm the Saxon army's defense line on the White Magpie, and ordered the 3rd Division to bypass south of Leipzig, avoiding direct confrontation with the Saxon army, and directly preemptively controlling the Elbe. In this way, Blucher used inferior forces to fight from an offensive operation to an offensive defensive operation. The 6,000 troops of the 3rd Division will block the attack of the Prussian army on the front line of the Elbe River, while Blucher hopes to use the strength of the 2nd Division to break through the defense line of the White Magpie River, occupy the important Saxon town of Leipzig, and annihilate the relatively weak Saxon corps first, so as to change the situation of the entire battlefield and reduce the pressure on the German army when facing the enemy.

On 26 October, Blucher ordered the Germans to launch an all-out attack on the Saxony army at dawn. First of all, the German artillery began to shell the Saxon defensive positions, this fierce shelling lasted for five hours, seriously damaged the defense of the Saxon army, although the Saxon army also tried to return fire with artillery, but the effect was not great, the German artillery power range was better than the Saxon artillery.

By 12 o'clock at noon, the German army had launched a charge against the Saxon army that had been bombed all morning, the Saxon army still used machine guns and effective artillery, which caused a certain blocking effect on the German army, but the German offensive was particularly resolute, under the cover of our artillery fire, the soldiers were sent across the opposite bank with a pontoon bridge, and the Saxon army resisted hard, but in the end it was broken through the defense line by the German soldiers who were not afraid of death, and after resisting for more than two hours, most of the Saxon soldiers chose to surrender. That night, Blucher captured Leipzig, which was the first to gain an advantage in the campaign. (To be continued.) )