Across the Rhine, the headquarters of the German coalition.

The "rabble" was what Archduke Albrecht said about the coalition forces, especially the volunteers made up of civilians from small states.

However, he did not despise those people, on the contrary, Archduke Albrecht admired their courage, but felt that war should be a soldier's business.

It was a dereliction of duty on the part of the government and the army to put untrained civilians on the battlefield, so there were no civilians in his army, and even the convoys were soldiers.

The Volunteers' weapons ranged from cold weapons to 16th and 17th century lances and arquebuses, to flintlock pistols, needle guns, homemade cannons, and even beech cannons.

The beech cannon is about the same as the elm cannon during the anti-Japanese period, although the strength is high, but the wood is wood after all.

First, find a thick beech wood and saw it, hollow out the middle, put it in the barrel (this kind of barrel does not meet the requirements of a real barrel, usually the bore wall is too thin), then use a few iron bars to re-fix the beech wood, and drill holes to place the fuse.

The use is also very simple, is to put gunpowder iron sheets, stones, glass and other things together, the advantage is that the material is convenient, the manufacture is simple, the close-range lethality is not weak, the disadvantage is also very obvious, the range is too close, the power is limited, it is difficult to cause substantial damage to the fortifications.

In fact, the cost of this thing was not much cheaper than that of a regular iron cannon, as the woods were usually owned by the nobility at the time.

This era was also an era of rapid development of shipbuilding, so the very cheap beech wood that is now very cheap was not cheap at that time, not to mention that the beech wood used to make beech cannons was all high-quality beech wood that was old and met certain specifications.

In addition to weapons and clothing, it is impossible to unify the colorful miscellaneous fish.

But what really annoyed Archduke Albrecht was the discipline of the group, bragging, drinking, playing cards, and drunkenness would not be worse than even the most notorious mercenaries.

However, this situation was expected by Franz, so it was only normal for one or two Allied soldiers to go missing in Alsace-Lorraine or something.

Albrecht didn't like this excuse for war, but he felt that it made sense to look at the chaos at this time.

At this time, an officer suddenly shouted: "Grand Duke! The French army on the other side of the river is massacring again! ”

As soon as I heard that all the generals in this command hurriedly picked up their binoculars and went outside to take a look, the French on the other side of the river really made a new moth.

The French soldiers tied some "poor" people to the muzzles of their guns, and it was useless for them to howl and struggle.

"Shelling" is a common thought that flashes through everyone's minds.

As the name suggests, artillery execution is the execution of prisoners with cannons, which is very bloody and shocking, and the high-speed discharge of cannonballs will shatter the human body.

The reason why Grouch chose to do this is that in addition to humiliation, it also means to show strength, after all, only large-caliber high-quality artillery can really "smash" people, and at the same time, placing artillery on the river bank is also a warning to the coalition forces, if you want to cross the river, these people are your fate.

"Call everybody!"

Albrecht shouted angrily, and the other officers immediately got busy when they saw this, in fact, there was no need for the officers to shout, many soldiers had already gathered near the riverbank, after all, they had come here because of this.

The French soldiers laughed and talked as they cleaned the chambers of their guns with cloths dipped in water, after all, the scene of artillery executions was rare, except in places like Morocco or Guatemala, where rebellion was rampant.

Another French soldier punctured the powder bag and casually sprinkled the excess gunpowder on the prisoner, whose body twitched visibly, apparently out of fear, which caused a burst of laughter.

"Look! The group of cowards. Grouch laughed too.

The solid bullet was put into the muzzle, and the next outcome was already expected by everyone.

With the roar of the new twelve-pounder field gun, the intense light of fire engulfed the victims, leaving only the green smoke rising from the muzzle.

And the tortured person was like a broken piece of porcelain, scattered everywhere.

One, two, three, four, . Until the last victim died, the coalition forces across the river were silent.

At this time, some priests in the army sang a requiem, and the soldiers and officers also sang it consciously.

A desolate atmosphere spread throughout the army, and Albrecht only had killing intent in his eyes, in fact, he had already made a battle plan with Franz.

Although it was not the best time, France sent the best motives.

"Shut up! France is attacking us! Shells have landed in our camp! Get ready to attack! ”

Albrecht mounted his horse and galloped through the camp, and as he roared, the drumbeat of the military musicians immediately changed, becoming rapid and murderous.

In fact, the boats used to cross the river have been prepared for a long time, and the pontoon bridge has also been prepared upstream, and a new pontoon bridge can be built here while the cable is cut downstream.

The soldiers immediately prepared for battle and performed their duties, after all, there was no better mobilization for war.

The Allied forces began to force their way across the Rhine, which caught the French on the other side by surprise, after all, the French, including Grouchy, did not think that the Austrian army would dare to force the crossing of the Rhine.

But in reality the distance between the two sides is only 120 meters, which is why Albrecht chose to camp here, although it is not suitable for defense, but it is very suitable for attack.

Moreover, it was the dry season of the Rhine, with a depth of only about 1 meter, and the flow rate of this section of the river was relatively slow.

Grouchy was not a mere genius to achieve so many victories, he was not intimidated by such an unexpected situation, on the contrary, he felt that the time had come to surpass Napoleon.

Grouchy did not feel that there was anything wrong with inventing history, after all, history was written by the victors, and his only mistake was defeat.

So Grouchy intended to be the winner, and he immediately ordered the cannon to be fired. The quality of the French soldiers was worthy of the title of the strongest army in Europe at this time, and the artillery used for execution immediately turned into defensive weapons, and the French troops on stand by in the town immediately rushed to support.

However, the artillery on which Grouchy had high hopes did not do much damage to the Allied forces crossing the river, but the excessive pressure on his artillery position (execution ground) gave the Austrian artillery a chance to show its skills.

Several shells in a row landed accurately on the French artillery positions, which were intended to allow the German coalition to see clearly, but at this time, it was unexpectedly worse.

In fact, in addition to Grouchy's excessive rampant exposure of artillery to the Austrian artillery, the new breech-loading rifled guns also made a great contribution.

In fact, rifled guns are not a new thing, they appeared in the 17th century, but they quickly disappeared into the long river of history due to their own shortcomings.

When Franz was researching the breech-loading rifled gun, he inspired the artillery designers to come up with the breech-loading rifled gun, which finally solved the problem of the difficulty of loading the rifled gun and made it truly valuable in actual combat.

(End of chapter)