The fire that burned all night was finally put out in the early morning, but thick smoke rose straight into the sky. All the soldiers and civilians in the city looked at the belated reinforcements in silence.
The bodies of the dead soldiers were carried out of the city and spread out on the grass. They could only bury them early in such a hot summer.
The old priest among the corpses has gray and messy hair, and the priest's robe is full of mud and water stains. He is saying the last prayer for each soldier, with an extremely pious expression.
Graves were dug out one after another, not even half a meter deep. The warriors who fought all night did not even have a thin-skinned coffin, but were hastily buried with a roll of felt.
"Is this also done by those damn Chinese? All these pagans will go to hell! Attack, attack... the artillery follows the large troops and attacks the damn German barbarians!" Frossard roared.
The 40,000-strong army was swallowed up by the fury of revenge. Their marching formation began to change. Each unit spread out on the wild ground and formed a thick offensive formation.
Looking down from the sky, military formations are placed on the earth like thick square bricks, moving towards the Saar River, the border river in the north, like Mount Tai pressing down on top.
On the other side of the river was the German border town of Saarbrücken. The lookout posts on the city wall had long seen the smoke and dust on the southern horizon. They knew that what was supposed to come would eventually come.
"The enemy has appeared, and the horizon is covered with smoke strips extending for five kilometers..."
"Blow up the railway bridge and stone bridge...the artillery is ready to fire...the enemy has appeared..."
Within the field of view of Frossard's telescope, several flashes of light and smoke and dust suddenly erupted, followed by a muffled thunder-like sound in his ears.
"Damn it! The Prussians blew up the bridges on the river. They even blew up the railway bridge? These turtles...let our engineers get on board!"
"Also, send a telegram to His Majesty. The Prussians don't have the guts to fight a decisive battle with France. They even blew up the railway bridge, which shows that their strategy is passive defense!"
"Hahaha... We all overestimated these Germans. They simply don't have the strength to fight against us France!"
France and Germany are connected by railways, and trade between the two countries is still very frequent during non-war periods. It is just because the war temporarily blocked trade.
The military significance of the railway is self-evident. Seeing the Prussians blowing up the railway bridge means that the Prussians have no idea of attacking at all.
Without the support of railway transportation capabilities, the Prussian army could only return to the most primitive supply mode. That backward efficiency simply could not support the consumption of hundreds of thousands of troops.
Boom boom boom... The unfolding French artillery began to fire at the opposite bank. The heavy forward-loaded bronze artillery fired shells with delayed fuses towards the Prussian positions on the opposite bank.
Boom boom boom... Clouds of smoke and dust erupted in the city of Saarbrücken, and then the Prussian artillery began to counterattack.
Saarbrücken is a trap set by the Prussians. The people in this city have been evacuated long ago. At this moment, only one division of troops is stationed, and the weapons are also the most primitive.
The artillery was still obsolete from the Austro-Prussian War. Its rate of fire and accuracy were not even as good as those of the French army. In addition, there were not many guns in the first place, so the strength of the counterattack was minimal.
As a result, the morale of the French army was greatly boosted, and the engineers began to speed up the erection of pontoons. Small boats were connected by ropes and pushed into the river. The diving masters quickly swam to the other side with the support of their own firepower.
The boats and ropes were connected to form the skeleton of the pontoon bridge, and then the engineers began to quickly lay wooden planks. After two hours, the four pontoon bridges were ready for people to cross.
"Attack...artillery cover...infantry rushes to establish a beachhead..."
A group of French soldiers in red trousers ran onto the pontoon with rifles and bayonets in their hands and rushed to the other side with a loud killing sound!
It was only then that the Prussian counterattack caused some casualties. They began to pour firepower on the French troops rushing to the beach. The dense rain of bullets killed the French troops who rushed up layer by layer.
The French soldiers were also furious. They rushed forward and knelt down on one knee to start a counterattack. Some even lay on the ground and used corpses as cover to start a counterattack.
At this moment, the French army has also fully popularized breech-loading needle rifles, especially the superior-performance Saspor rifles. The dense firepower quickly took the initiative, and the area of the opposite bank position controlled by the French army expanded inch by inch.
The bugle of the charge was loud, and the morale of the French army was high. At one o'clock in the afternoon, three regiments of troops had successfully established a foothold on the other side. Army Commander Frossard finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"It turns out that the Prussians are not as powerful as imagined! Let the engineers continue to build the pontoon bridge...the artillery can move forward and use the range of the artillery to expand our position on the other side!"
"Let our cavalry eat some dry food and feed their horses quickly! Let the cavalry regiment charge in two hours!"
Starting from Napoleon I, the general idea of the French army's field battles was to first bombard with artillery, then the infantry fired intensively to stabilize the center, and then the cavalry outflanked the two wings to break through the enemy's formation.
It was this set of tactics that led the French army to achieve brilliant victories one after another!
Frossard is obviously a big fan of Napoleon, and his tactical thinking this time is no different from that of 70 years ago!
In his mind, as long as the French artillery pushed across the other side, it could completely cover all the Prussian army positions, and intensive artillery fire could always defeat the morale of the Prussian army.
Then it's time for the cavalry to show off its might!
The rhythm of the war was firmly controlled by the French, and the Prussian army on the opposite side was unable to withstand it. When the first batch of cannons started firing on the other side of the river, the Prussian army position outside the city finally issued an order to retreat.
The Prussian troops in countless fortified fortresses abandoned their positions and desperately retreated towards the city of Saarbrücken. Before the French cavalry could charge, a large number of Prussian troops had already withdrawn into the city protected by the city walls.
"Haha... Hahaha... Is this the elite that Bismarck is proud of? Hahaha..." Frossard said with a wild laugh.
"The whole army surrounded this isolated city, and the artillery was set up on the eastern highlands. Let me suppress these defenders... Hahaha, they even left the cannon outside the city!"
"No need to save ammunition, just keep firing..." Frossard looked at his pocket watch and found that it was already 4:45 pm.
There is not enough time to attack the city at this moment, and the casualties in the night battle must be very heavy!
"Except for the artillery, the entire army is undergoing repairs...to recuperate overnight. We will continue to attack the city tomorrow!"
"Send our battle report to Your Majesty! Tell Your Majesty that we have won a great victory and that the Saarbrücken area is under our control!"
