"Hmm... The Corsicans were also quick to react. ”

Colonel Butland straightened his back, sat on horseback, and watched the Corsican army with a silver-encrusted telescope.

There are endless meadows for miles, no hills or trees to obstruct the view, and even the grass beneath your feet is knee-deep.

Under such terrain, combined with today's almost cloudless sunny weather, both sides can have an unobstructed view of each other's battles.

"It's really weird that they number less than a thousand."

Colonel Butland put down his binoculars, touched his chin and said in contemplation:

"There's no ambush around, what the hell are they thinking."

"it, Colonel."

A staff officer shook his head disdainfully and said:

"It's enough to surprise me that this group of Corsican wildlings can be lined up in a neat array, and what tactics they can have, maybe in a few hundred years."

"Well, that's true."

Colonel Butland smiled and nodded, as an officer from a military academy, he was somewhat contemptuous of this army from a poor and remote land:

"Pass my order to form a phalanx with three battalions of troops and advance towards the enemy, while the other two battalions are divided into two wings, ready to encircle and annihilate the enemy from the flank."

......

"Lieutenant Colonel Bonaparte, the Sardinian army is on the move."

Major Trefali squinted into the distance, barely recognising that the Sardinian army was gathering and forming up and slowly walking towards him, and he couldn't help but say to Lawrence with some nervousness.

Lawrence clutched the reins in his hand on horseback and took a few deep breaths to calm his emotions.

Unlike the last surprise attack on Giethoorn Bay, this is the first time for Lawrence to command an army on the battlefield in the true sense of the word.

Fortunately, Major Trefali and Lieutenant Seth were both experienced veterans, and Lawrence was not responsible for micro-manipulation on the battlefield, but only had to direct the general army movements.

"They seem to want to surround us?"

Lawrence also watched the movement of the Sardinian army from afar, and watched the width of the opposing army's battle line continue to increase, moving slowly like a huge net that was opened, and said without surprise:

"This is in line with what I expected, the Sardinian army has the upper hand, and they will certainly not only win this battle, but also destroy our living forces and maximize the results of the battle."

Major Trefali also nodded, a little relieved, and said:

"This is good news, their flanks are unable to fire during the encirclement, and the frontal fire pressure on our troops is much less."

"That's right."

Lawrence nodded slightly, pulled up the reins, and turned to look at the soldiers under his command.

The soldiers had also received some news over the past few days, knowing that they were about to face an enemy several times their own number.

Despair, nervousness, fear, trust, fanaticism.

From their faces, Lawrence could read a variety of emotions, both positive and negative, that shrouded all the soldiers in a solemn and solemn atmosphere.

The array in front of Lawrence wasn't silent, and he could hear the soldiers whispering about their unease.

More often than not, the soldiers clutched iron crosses, leaned on their comrades' shoulders with their eyes closed, and whispered prayers.

"Maybe only God can help us win this battle."

The soldiers clutching the cross thought.

Crackling!

I heard a sudden explosion in front of the soldiers.

The soldiers looked up in a daze, only to see that it was their commander, riding on a tall horse with red hair, waving his whip and pumping it into the air.

Lawrence slowly received the whip in his hand, responding to each gaze that stared at him.

"Soldiers, listen to me, face ahead, and tell me what you see."

Lawrence's near-roaring voice reached everyone's ears, and their minds went blank as they stared ahead at the enemy troops advancing in front of them, but no one answered.

"I have come to tell you, it is the army of the Sardinians, the army that brought plunder and slaughter to Corsica. Soldiers, think of the appearance of these strangers in the land of Corsica. ”

Lawrence drew his dagger and pointed it at the attacking Sardinians.

The tip of the knife turned into a blinding point of light in the bright sunlight, and despite the blinding light, the soldiers stared at Lawrence's tip and the direction it was pointing.

"They came to Corsica only yesterday, and their blades are still clear and clean, not yet stained with Corsican blood. But..."

Lawrence took the short knife in his hand and danced a knife flower, put it into its sheath, and then looked at the soldiers with an impassioned expression and shouted:

"If the first drop of blood that spills out of a nation when it is invaded is the blood of a woman, the blood of a child, the blood of an old man, the blood of an unarmed civilian, then I will call the men of this nation a bastard, a coward, in the most vicious language!"

"Now, soldiers, behind us, are Corsican women, children, old people, unarmed civilians, what are you going to do?"

Lawrence rode slowly across the array, swept the faces of each soldier with a sharp eye, and asked sharply:

"Tell me! Tell me this Florentine, are you ready to fight or retreat?! Are the men of Corsican warriors or bastards?! ”

The silence, the deathly silence, lasted only for a moment.

This was followed by a deafening wave of sound:

"Fight!"

"We are Corsicans! We are born warriors! ”

"Corsican men are born with swords!"

......

"What's going on?"

Colonel Butland frowned and raised his binoculars again, but he couldn't see exactly what was happening, and could only hear a roar coming from the enemy position.

"Whatever, maybe the savages are going crazy." A staff officer pouted, completely nonchalant.

Colonel Butland nodded approvingly, turned his head to the herald beside him, and ordered:

"Inform the artillerymen to prepare for an artillery bombardment, and additionally order the battalions to speed up so that the enemy does not escape."

After about half an hour, the distance between the two armies had been reduced to about six hundred meters, and it was within the range of the six three-pounder guns in the rear of the Sardinian army.

The Sardinian artillery poured shells on the Corsican army without stopping, and almost every ten seconds a shell whizzed over the heads of the soldiers, slamming into the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust.

Lawrence grabbed the reins and reined in the frightened horses, and even if the shells missed, the loud noises and dust kicked up were almost out of control for the livestock under his crotch.

"Damn it!"

Lawrence, who was already poor at riding, saw that he could not control the livestock, so he simply turned over and dismounted, trotted over a crater himself, drew his knife and pointed at the approaching Sardinians, and shouted:

"Soldiers, march! I am with you! ”

Even in the midst of artillery fire, the soldiers of the special battalion couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, they couldn't believe that this commander had abandoned his mount and shuttled through the array under artillery fire like them.

At this moment, even the most cowardly soldier gritted his teeth, clenched the musket in his hand, and walked firmly through the smoke in front of him.

......

"Well, yes, as I planned."

As the supreme commander, Colonel Butland, of course, did not go to the front line in person, but watched the battle with a telescope at a distance of about three hundred yards from the battlefield.

The two armies had been engaged in an exchange of fire for some time, and the sound of gunfire echoed across the plain.

The smoke from the burning of gunpowder gathered together to form a large and slowly rising white cloud that hung over the battlefield.

"Very well, the troops on the flanks are in place."

Colonel Butland looked at the situation on the battlefield, licked his lips excitedly, and shouted to his side:

"Herald! Notify the two battalions on the flanks to begin the encirclement, encircling all enemy forces in it. ”

However, to Colonel Butland's surprise, no one responded to him, and only the sound of gunfire could be heard.

"Heralds, heralds! Damn it! ”

Colonel Butland roared and looked around on his horse.

His adjutant and staff officers also looked at each other, wondering why the heralds had not returned.