readx;? The continuous bombardment of more than 100 cannons of the Rhine Corps lasted for nearly two hours, and it was not until the sun just rose at six o'clock that Brion ordered to stop the shelling, but the smoke cleared, and a large part of the outer fortress of Stuttgart in the distance was basically in ruins. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

For the power of this howitzer, Brion really realized the horror of its destructive power at this moment, and the fortifications that the Austrians were confident in were wiped out under the bombardment of the French artillery in just two hours. However, the Austrian troops in the city were directly stunned by this sudden bombardment, not only suffered numerous casualties, but also did not recover until the end of the shelling.

Although they still did not understand what was going on, one thing was certain that such a large-scale bombardment must have been fought by French troops, and in terms of firepower, the strength could reach at least about one corps. Although there was great panic and confusion within the Austrian army after such a terrible artillery bombardment, the Austrian regular army was indeed different from the ordinary miscellaneous troops, and most of the soldiers could still pick up guns and have a certain combat effectiveness.

"What's going on? Who the hell is calling? Which unit is it? How many fucking people are coming?" After the shelling, Prince Schwarzenberg was disgraced and angry.

Several of the other officers were visibly frightened, undressed in uniforms and covered in dust. Everyone, look at me, I look at you, and I can't speak for a long time. Finally, a chief of staff said: "From the perspective of equipment and firepower, most of them are the French Rhine Legion, and such a powerful firepower must be the main force of the Rhine Legion." I estimate that the number of invading enemy troops is at least 50,000 or more. ”

Prince Schwarzenberg was even more confused when he heard this, and asked sharply: "The main force of the Rhine Army? Isn't Archduke Charles besieging the main force of the Rhine Army? How can there be so many French troops here, and at least more than 50,000 people?"

"Prince, the shelling outside has stopped for a while, and I estimate that they are about to launch a formal attack. Do you see us now?"

Schwarzenberg took a deep breath and said, "No matter how many enemies come, organize all units to fight at once." Immediately send someone to send a distress call to the Grand Duke Charles' department, inform us of the situation, and let the main force quickly come to the rescue. ”

As soon as the sky dawned in Stuttgart, Bernadotte and Nala respectively commanded their troops to launch their first attack.

Considering that Stuttgart was easy to defend and difficult to attack, Brion only sent Bernadotte and Nala's divisions to attack first, and did not send all the troops to attack.

However, this initial attack alone did make the Austrian army in the city strong enough, not only because the Austrian army had not fully recovered its combat effectiveness, but also because of the strong firepower of the French army, accompanied by the accurate artillery suppression of the howitzer, the Austrian army as the defending side lost almost twice as much as the French army. With just one charge, he almost broke through the first line of defense of the Austrian fortress. If it weren't for the huge casualties suffered by the Austrian army and the use of crowd tactics to seize the defensive line, otherwise the French army would have really been able to attack Stuttgart at one time.

However, at the forefront of the battle, General Nala wore a blue French major general's uniform, and like other mid-ranking officers, riding a war horse and wielding a sword, leading only one cavalry team deep into the enemy line, and his bravery instantly inspired the attacking troops, and for a time it was hard to tear a hole in the enemy's defense.

In modern warfare, the general can only stay in the command headquarters, not only because it is extremely dangerous on the battlefield, but also because once the main general dies in battle, then the army under his command will be in chaos, which will eventually affect the outcome of the war. However, in modern Europe, it is true that the main general stays in the rear to direct the battle, but once the situation of the battle changes, the main general must risk dying on the battlefield to personally go into battle to boost morale. It has to be said that even Napoleon in history did this.

The battle lasted for nearly five hours, during which the French and Austrians seemed to have been entangled in the battle for position, and the Austrians gradually showed signs of defeat, but the French still could not break through the positional defense. Although the Austrian army had suffered heavy losses due to several fierce charges of the Rhine Army, the Rhine Army had also suffered certain losses due to the loss of 800 by killing 1,000 enemies, that is, it had been stuck in a state of fierce battle and could not advance the battle.

However, at this time, a communications corpsman from Ulm received extremely unfavorable news: "The battle situation in Ulm is tight, Davout Division fought with the main Austrian army after a feint, due to insufficient troops, fought and retreated, and is now besieged in the fortress of Reutlingen." The right flank of the Austrian army under General Balin Loch had also joined the siege with the troops of Archduke Charles. ”

The current situation is imminent, once the Austrian army is allowed to eat the 30,000 elites of the Davout Division, then even if Briand conquers Stuttgart, he will have to bear a huge disadvantage in strength to deal with the more than 100,000 Austrian troops that have converged. But if the Austrian left flank is abandoned now and the Davout is reinforced, then the previous losses of the French army will also be in vain.

"Damn! Send an order to Davout to hold out until April 4th, or the entire Rhine Legion will be destroyed by him!" Brion frowned, and threw his pencil on the table with some annoyance: "Immediately send the order to go down, and the troops will stop attacking for the time being." Gather me one hundred and fifty artillery regiments of the Rhine Army and bombard me with covering!"

Although it was true that these howitzers were a bit bulky compared to the old guns, they did not take long to prepare in the Rhine Legion. On the contrary, it is this intensive call that really brings out the power of the howitzer.

After several rounds of intensive artillery fire, the Stuttgart position on the opposite side was already full of corpses, and at this time there was a dense burst of gunfire around the city. Brion knew that it was the Rhine Army that launched the general attack.

As expected, the latest news came from the communications corps coming down from the front, and the Bernadotte division had taken the lead in attacking Stuttgart. The Nara Division and the Rubert Division, which were supporting the attack, were fighting around the area, mainly responsible for clearing the remnants of the surviving or lost troops.

Of course, Brion had a death rule that he would not be killed, and the Rhine Legion had always maintained a preferential policy for surrendered prisoners.

After a day of fighting, the left flank led by Prince Schwarzenberg was completely routed by tens of thousands of Rhine troops, and the soldiers of the army were missing, wounded, and captured

With more than half of the losses, less than 20,000 soldiers were left to fight after exiting Stuttgart.

In this battle, the total losses of the divisions of the Rhine Corps were only about 3,000 men, and they besieged the Austrian left flank troops under the command of Schwarzenberg, killing more than 9,000 Austrians in the first battle. Pursued by the Nala Division, Schwarzenberg led his forces to the north to Heilbronn and then fled north.

However, it did not take long for the news of the defeat of the Left Wing Army to reach the desk of the headquarters of Archduke Charles.

It's just that up to now, Archduke Charles is still busy besieging the Davout Division, and these more than 100,000 Austrian troops launched nearly 30 large-scale charges during this time, not only in the face of the French army's powerful firepower suppression is ineffective, but also killed and wounded thousands of Austrian troops.

Until the rout of the Left Wing Army, Archduke Charles was still convinced that he was indeed besieging the main force of the Rhine Army. However, as Brion led the Rhine Army to the south to reinforce Dawushi, Archduke Charles realized and shouted that he had been fooled, but it was too late, and the rout of the left flank was already a fact.

Although Balinloch, the commander of the Left Wing Army, had long expected that this battle would never be so simple, he did not expect that the Rhine Army would be so strong in combat, and it was already amazing to talk about the 30,000 French troops in the Reutlingen Fortress who stubbornly resisted the 100,000 Austrian troops. Obviously, the current Rhine Legion is very different from the Rhine Legion of the Bourbon dynasty.

Balin Loch looked at Archduke Charles with a black face, and said cautiously: "At present, it can only be like this, the loss is only the left flank troops, and it has not hurt the foundation of our army." How about I propose to immediately abandon the siege of the fortress of Reutlingen, shrink our forces, retreat to Ulm, and prevent the Rhine corps from entering Bavaria, after which we will have a decisive battle with the French in an attempt to do so."

Although Archduke Charles is young and vigorous, he still maintains superhuman sanity about the battle situation. Faced with the menacing and morale-boosting army of 70,000 tigers and wolves, Grand Duke Charles naturally knew what choice to make. "By the way, what's the name of the new Rhine Legion?"

He was the third in line to the throne of Bourbon, Lieutenant General Brion, Duke of Baden. ”

"Brion . . . "Archduke Charles looked into the distance before retreating, and it seemed that this time he really ran into an opponent.

On 3 April, Archduke Charles halted the assault on the fortress and led the army back to Ulm overnight.

The next day, Brion led the Rhine Corps to join up with the Davout division and officially entered Stuttgart, the large city in Germany. After entering the city, Briand immediately ordered that the French soldiers were strictly forbidden to burn, kill and loot, visited a large number of refugees whose homes were in ruins during the battle, and donated daily necessities to those who were homeless.

In fact, what Brion did was not how much he loved the German people, but only to win the hearts of the people better, so that the German people, who had been enslaved by the Austrian Empire for hundreds of years, would support their so-called struggle for justice and freedom, or at least not cause any damage in their own rear.

In his first battle, Brion only tasted a hint of sweetness. The Rhine Army did have some advantages over the Austrian army, not only because it marched quickly and was advanced, but Brion's loyal private army was Brion's biggest trump card. As long as Brion wants to, these dead soldiers can fight for him at any time.

However, in the current situation, although the Austrian army was defeated, it was still strong enough to make Brion feel unscrupulous. Brion also understood that this was the horror, Austria had nothing, as long as the Austrian emperor was willing, there would be more than 100,000 Austrian troops drawn from the empire to reinforce Archduke Charles. Military action was also Austria's biggest bargaining chip to control the situation in the German war. And that's not even counting the Sardinian teams that landed in the south.

On 7 April, after a few days of rest, Brion led his troops to continue their march. It's just that Briand is distressed that the defeat of the left-wing troops was unprepared before, but now it is not easy to deal with the main force of more than 100,000 Austrian troops that have converged and are ready.