Walter is just a very inconspicuous small town in southern Germany, located on the west bank of the Rhine River. There is a railway running from north to south, and a railway bridge is erected over the Rhine River.
As long as they control this place, the French army will have a bridgehead that can cross the Rhine River eastward. As long as they cross the Rhine River more than fifty kilometers east of the Rhine River, they will be Stuttgart, the capital of Württemberg.
If we do not use troops to the east and continue to attack north in this small city, we will reach Mannheim, an important city in southern Germany, and further north is Frankfurt.
It goes without saying that the geographical location of this small town is important, and it is very clear when you look at it on the map.
At this moment, McMahon's army has occupied this small town. An army of more than 30,000 people gathered outside the city, overwhelming as far as the eye can see.
McMahon stood in front of the map in a straight military uniform and remained silent for a long time. The formation he set up was almost impeccable. With a pincer offensive on the left and right, the first division conquered Wissemburg, and the main force conquered Walter. The two forces supported each other and relied on each other.
Less than seventy kilometers further west, the French Emperor's main army is attacking Saarbrücken. I believe it won't be long before good news comes.
The two strategic locations of Saarbrücken and Walter are two important defensive positions on the southern border of Germany. As long as these two doors are opened, the entire soft belly of Germany will be completely undefended.
"Is Your Majesty planning to go north? Or east? I think His Majesty will definitely choose to go east and threaten Bavaria with large troops. As long as Ludwig II surrenders, there will be no major battles to be fought south of Jena. !”
"Yes, His Majesty will definitely be so decisive, so I must guard this railway bridge!"
McMahon was already thinking about how to use troops in Germany at this moment, but he didn't expect that a shocking piece of bad news would fall in front of him.
The rangers discovered the broken troops at 9:15 in the morning. These French cavalrymen suddenly discovered the inhuman soldiers in twos and threes in the forests, trails, and hills.
At first they thought it was the Prussian army sneaking over, but when they took a closer look at the bright red breeches, they knew it was one of their own.
"Which army are you from? Why are you in such a mess? Where are your weapons?" the cavalryman rushed over and asked loudly.
"Water...give us a sip of water..." The defeated soldiers rushed over and snatched the water bottles and dry food without saying a word. Each one ate like a starving ghost reincarnated.
At this time, the cavalry discovered that behind these defeated troops, the dense forest and road in the distance were actually dark and full of struggling soldiers.
"We are the subordinates of Commander Douay... It's all over, it's all over... The first division was attacked at night, and Commander Douay was killed... The Prussian army is coming..."
"Oh God! You are a reinforced division that has been reorganized. There are more than 10,000 people! You were all defeated? Didn't you even save the division commander?"
"Damn it, I want to report to the marshal right away!" The cavalryman galloped towards Walter.
"What!" The pencil in McMahon's hand was broken with a click. "Douay is dead? He was shot! How is that possible!"
Shocking news, all the officers in the command tent were shocked by this news. How could there be such a war in the world? Just one day after crossing the border, a senior official at the level of division commander was killed!
McMahon confirmed it three times in a row, and finally an ominous premonition came to him!
Soldiers are a group of people who dance with death. Their intuition is very sensitive, and even these people are somewhat spiritual.
At the beginning of the war, senior officials at the level of division commanders were killed. This was an extremely ominous recruitment!
"How could this happen? How could this happen? Go immediately to the center of the rout to find the officer. I want to ask personally!"
After a while, more than a dozen battalion and company level officers walked into the camp in embarrassment. When they saw Marshal McMahon, they couldn't help but feel sad.
"Sir! We are sorry for you! We were attacked by more than six times the number of enemies last night...and it was after midnight when our defenses were at their lowest..."
"I'm outnumbered! I'm really outnumbered..."
"What? Sixty thousand people? You were attacked by sixty thousand people? A small Prussian from Wissemburg used an army of sixty thousand men?"
"How can this be?"
From ancient times to the present, defeated generals will exaggerate. Only by saying that the enemy is extremely powerful can they minimize their own sins. Although they were attacked by three times the number of enemy troops, they had to double their numbers in order to whitewash themselves.
But they didn't expect that just because of their lies and deceptions, they would bring extremely wrong information to McMahon, which would lead to errors in the entire strategic judgment!
"Sixty thousand people...are there really sixty thousand people?"
"It's true... there are seven or eight thousand cavalry alone. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to kill the Chinese army with a single charge! Commander Douai was caught off guard and was caught by stray bullets!"
McMahon slapped his forehead, "No! Our intelligence is wrong. The regiment led by Prince Carl cannot be 60,000 people. It looks like he has at least an army of more than 100,000 people!"
"This total force is already close to three times ours! Damn it, how many troops Prussia has mobilized!"
"Pass my order, the rangers expand the warning area! If you find the enemy's army, you must fight with caution. If necessary, you can move closer to the Chinese army!"
When a super-large corps fights, the area it covers is quite large. The commander of the Chinese army cannot see every detail of the entire battle with the naked eye.
This is very different from the wars in the Middle Ages. Even in the era of Napoleon I, those famous battles in history actually only had tens of thousands of people on both sides combined.
The commander can use telescopes on the highlands to view the situation of all troops and give instructions!
By the end of the 19th century, the number of legions was getting larger and larger, and even hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Many times the forwards had already fought with the enemy, but the Chinese army didn't know it yet.
At this time, it depends on the quality of the front-line commanders, and it also tests the strategic judgment ability of the commander-in-chief. He must give the front-line commanders a general operational idea.
Is it radical or conservative? Pursuit or expulsion? Is it a total annihilation or a gathering of defeated troops? All these require the commander of the regiment to give a central idea, and then the following officers can freely express themselves under the general principle of this central idea.
McMahon misestimated the number of enemies and ended up giving a relatively conservative battle plan. Little did he know that the number of troops Prince Carl could mobilize at this moment was actually just over 40,000.
