Gambetta did not rest for a minute, and he would not let his regiments rest. The moment he set foot on the land on the south coast, Gambetta delivered a speech to inspire the entire army in Orleans!
"Great French people! Our motherland is bleeding, and our nation is at a critical moment of life and death!"
"All the Prussians want to do is to destroy the country and destroy the nation! They want to destroy the great civilization of France!"
"Cowards, cowards and countless people with ulterior motives are conspiring together to betray the country. They have already bent their knees to the invaders!"
"Three million people in Paris are surrounded by less than 300,000 Prussian troops, but so far there has not been a single breakout battle!"
"Why is that? It's because those weaklings are scared out of their wits!"
"Sons and daughters of the motherland! Do we want to watch civilized France finally fall into the hands of feudal and centralized Prussia?"
"Will the light of civilization brought by the Great Revolution eventually be destroyed in the hands of the feudal monarchs?"
"I'm not willing to give in! What about you?"
The impassioned speech inspired all the soldiers present. Gambida jumped on the cannon box and pointed to the north!
"French warriors! The national strength of our motherland is ten times and a hundred times that of Prussia. We have huge colonies that are dozens of times larger than the mainland. We have resources that the Prussians can't even imagine!"
"Why should we lose? Why don't we dare to resist when our capital is being besieged? Why!"
"The motherland now only needs one victory, and the people only need one victory to boost morale! The cowards in Paris dare not fight, and the Northern Corps has been destroyed under the command of the incompetent emperor!"
"So where is the hope of the Republic? Who else can we count on besides our Southern Corps? Orleans must be the turning point in this war!"
"We are the saviors of the motherland! We must use victory to ignite the raging fire of resistance across France!"
"My brothers and sisters! What city is on the other side of the river? It's Orleans! It's the holy city where Joan of Arc saved France!"
Gambida's heartbreaking cry was "It was here in Orleans that Joan of Arc was blessed by the Archangels St. Michael, St. Margaret and St. Catherine..."
"It was also here that he led the French army to defeat the British!"
"It was also here that our saint cried out her faith, 'For France, I will die!'"
Gambetta's eyes burst into tears of excitement, and he stretched his fingers into the distance. "Brothers and sisters in France! Which of you doesn't know the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on the north bank? Who doesn't know the Martyrdom Square commemorating Joan of Arc?"
"The heroic soul of Joan of Arc is watching us in the sky! If we don't fight to the death now, how long will we have to wait?"
Gambetta suddenly knelt down on one knee and prayed devoutly facing the tall Place Sainte-Croix in the north, while the tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the Loire Corps around him all burst into tears with excitement and knelt down in the dust together!
"The heroic soul of Joan of Arc protects France, and I will use my life to fulfill your oath... For France, I will die as if it were my own!"
"Compatriots! I am standing here, watching you liberate our city, watching you defeat the enemy's regiments!"
"From now on, the fight never stops!"
Joan of Arc is a national hero of France. Countless scholars even believe that Joan of Arc’s deeds were the germ of the birth of French nationalism. Without the saint, there would be no French nationalist spirit!
Emperors of all ages, including the God of War Napoleon, all respected the deeds of Joan of Arc!
How important the victory of the Battle of Orleans led by Joan of Arc was to France can be seen clearly from the situation of the Hundred Years War between England and France.
At that time, there was serious internal strife in France, and its national power was greatly depleted. Britain had captured Paris, and all of northern France became British territory. Orleans became the front line to protect the fragile south.
When the country was about to be completely destroyed, Joan of Arc turned out to be a saint and inspired the morale of all French soldiers and civilians as a saint. She won the Battle of Orleans and completely reversed the situation of the country's destruction!
And now, during the Franco-Prussian War, Orleans was given a sacred color by Gambetta. During this special period when thousands of horses were silent, this city of saints once again shouldered the important task of boosting the morale of the nation!
If the Battle of Orleans is won, the morale of all France will be reversed, and the war will enter a long-lasting situation without surrender. Such a result is unacceptable to Prussia!
As long as France's confidence is fully mobilized, Prussia's national power cannot be exhausted!
The truth is clear as soon as it is explained, and the flame of nationalism is ignited in no time!
A tsunami-like cry of war suddenly erupted on both sides of the Loire River, and Joan of Arc's famous words once again shocked the world!
"For France! I would rather die than die!"
The Prussians never expected that these French people had rescued Gambetta but had no intention of retreating. After just over ten minutes, hundreds of thousands of troops actually started a general attack!
The pontoon bridge was full of approaching troops, and 1,800 cannons were pushed to the river bank and began unrestricted bombardment of the Prussian army!
All the artillery shells were transported to the front line. The artillerymen knew that the range of their bronze artillery was not as good as the Prussian Krupp, but they risked being destroyed by enemy artillery fire and still rushed to the front line!
"Artillery fire... cover the infantry attack!"
"Regardless of casualties...don't care about the enemy's counterattack...even if the entire army is wiped out, we must cover the infantry attack!"
"For France! I would rather die than die!"
The Prussians should not be caught off guard. The continuous explosions of artillery fire exploded the French offensive positions, and the positions occupied on the north bank suddenly expanded several times!
Each of the southern regiments is based on their hometown. These regiments, which are marked by place names, rely on the bonds between fellow villagers to fight better than the veterans' cooperation!
Often when a group of comrades die, there will always be ten times as many fellow villagers to kill for revenge!
In the battles for block after block, the Prussian army retreated again and again, and organized counterattacks again and again. Thanks to the well-trained soldiers and sharp artillery, otherwise there would be no trace of the Prussian army in the city of Orleans in one day.
News of the outbreak of the war in Orleans City was quickly telegraphed to Prince Carl's headquarters in the rear. At this moment, Prince Carl was commanding the army to encircle and suppress the remaining French legions in Troyes, Dijon and other places.
It is not far from the city of Metz, and there are also the Vosges Mountains with high mountains. These southern French regiments are preparing to be broken up into small groups to support the north through the mountain roads.
The Vosges Mountains were not suitable for large regiments to fight, and Prince Carl only blocked important passes, but he knew very well that there must be many secret trails in the mountains that could be passed.
In order to eat Bazin in the city of Metz, he must set up heavy defense lines here to block these southern reinforcements outside the Vosges Mountains!
The war was fragmented but very difficult. The continuous fighting caused heavy losses to the Prussian army and low morale. In addition, our logistics support line was getting further and further away. As the guerrilla resistance penetrated deep into France, the resistance was also very tenacious.
Prince Karl received bad news early in the morning. A military train transporting supplies was attacked by French guerrillas. More than 10,000 artillery shells and countless military rations and medicines were all destroyed!
But bad news always comes one after another. In the afternoon, he received an emergency telegram from Orleans!
"Asshole! Idiot! I gave Haltmann an army of 100,000 men. How can he not even be able to defend a city? Are you in a hurry? I don't have any reserves for him!"
