The battle in Orleans has lasted for three days and three nights, without a minute's rest in between. The French Loire Corps invested a full 250,000 troops in these three days and continued to attack forward.
In three days of bloody fighting, ten pontoon bridges were blown up and rebuilt, then blown up and rebuilt again. The casualties among French engineers who repaired the pontoon bridges alone reached 1,400.
All sacrifices were meaningful. Three days later, the three historic stone bridges in Orleans were officially captured and protected by the French army. From this moment on, more troops could attack the north bank.
During these three days of fierce fighting, the French fired a total of more than 65,000 artillery shells, and the Prussian army on the opposite side also fired about 50,000 artillery shells. The fierce artillery fire from both sides destroyed almost a quarter of the city. .
There were wreckage and gunpowder smoke everywhere, and the black smoke soaring into the sky could clearly be seen by people more than ten kilometers away!
The Marseille Independent Division was crippled, and the 12,000 men who went up only brought back 2,000 wounded!
The Pyrenees Mountain Regiment was reduced by 80% in one charge. Although an entire city block was captured, only 85 people survived in the end!
The two brigades in Toulouse have been trapped in a tight siege and have been fighting bloody battles for twelve hours. The Bordeaux 2nd Division and an independent brigade are fiercely attacking to rescue these besieged warriors!
Not a single unit retreated, no matter how severe the casualties, not a single one retreated!
Gambetta stood on the river embankment on the south bank, directing the battle here for three whole days without even an hour's rest. At this moment, he was so tired that he fell into a trance!
In this battle, only Gan Bida had the right to order the disabled troops to retreat. Without his order, even if the battle lasted until the last soldier, they were not allowed to retreat!
"Reporting to the commander, the 2nd Infantry Brigade of Lyon has been reduced by 70%. It can no longer withstand it. Please request for defense changes and repairs..."
"Reporting to your Excellency, Minister... The Alpine Mountain Brigade can no longer hold on, and the defense line is crumbling. Please ask for support..."
Gambida was constantly surrounded by messengers from various units, who brought news of help from various units in the bloody battle. They watched the young men in their hometown die like cutting leeks, and they were so sad that they couldn't breathe!
But Gan Bida's heart was as hard as stone at this moment. He shook his head resolutely and pointed to the north. "Under the heroic spirit of the saint, there is no word "retreat..." No one is allowed to retreat until the last soldier is beaten. !”
"Can a good French man be no match for a woman?"
"Retreat? We have already retreated from the north to Orleans. Where else can we retreat? Retreat to your doorstep and let the war burn in your hometown?"
"When it comes to sacrifice, who hasn't sacrificed? Look at how Orleans has been destroyed. Don't the people here have sacrificed?"
"Northern France has fallen into enemy-occupied territory. Didn't the people there sacrifice their lives?"
"Don't fight if you're afraid of death! I can directly cancel the designation of your unit, and you can go home!"
The harsh words made the messengers blush. They stood at attention, saluted, and turned back to the battlefield without saying a word. They pulled their necks and shouted along the way!
"Fight to the last soldier! Fight to the death and never retreat! Fight to the death and never retreat!"
Amidst the shouts of killing, two more divisions moved across the Loire River. The front line stretching for more than ten kilometers from the city to the suburbs was filled with the sound of gunfire and shouts of killing.
Gan Bi's eyes were full of red bloodshot eyes. He drank bitter coffee to refresh himself and talked endlessly!
"Hold on, my children, please hold on. The balance of victory has tilted towards us, haven't you noticed?"
Gambida was surrounded by his direct descendants, but most of them were civilian officials, so they were always responsible for more civilian work in the rear.
Like the Minister of the Interior, they have very keen observation skills, not about the battlefield, but about other aspects!
A middle-aged man wearing myopia glasses said, "Yes, a big reversal is about to happen, haven't you noticed? The Prussian artillery bombardment range is shrinking, and our artillery positions have become increasingly safer... "
Another officer took a sip of bitter coffee. "Yes, I calculated that three days ago and now, the Prussians launched bayonet hand-to-hand combat three times more often..."
"What does this mean? This means that there is a problem with the enemy's supply, and their strength has been squeezed to the limit!"
The end of the crossbow! The French didn't know this idiom, but they really felt that the Prussian Army was at the end of its battle.
In this war, the Prussian army has reached its limit as far as Orleans, and it is really impossible to fight further south. Although there are many troops, they have to be evenly distributed across the vast northern France, and how many are allocated to Orleans.
The 100,000-strong army did not receive any support within three days. In the end, Prince Karl only allocated one new Bavarian army to them. After all, only 30,000 people were still on the way!
As for artillery shells, bullets, medicines and other combat supplies, the shortage is even more serious!
The continuous harassment by the French guerrillas has made railway transportation a constant problem. The railway transportation efficiency that was initially advantageous has turned into rubbish at this moment!
At the beginning of the battle, the Prussian artillery group on the north bank of the Loire River was still very sharp. As soon as the Napoleon artillery on the French side opened fire, the counterattack shells from the Krupp steel cannon hit them within ten minutes.
On the first day, the French army lost more than 300 cannons, more than 2,000 casualties, and countless damaged artillery shells!
But by the next day, people clearly felt that the Prussian firepower was insufficient. Krupp's artillery shells were more concentrated within the charging French army, and there was little counterattack against the French artillery positions!
By the third day, Krupp's artillery fire was even rarer. Only in the neighborhoods where the fighting was the fiercest, when hand-to-hand combat was about to break out, there was a round of counterattack artillery fire!
Everything proved that the Prussian army could no longer attack. Those arrogant Prussian soldiers were obviously beaten out of their souls in the three-day war of attrition!
On the contrary to the Prussians, the French Legion became more and more courageous as they fought!
Don't look at how many of them died on the battlefield, even though their individual combat capabilities were far inferior to the Prussian army!
However, reinforcements from the south of France were constantly being added. The train tracks were full of trains waiting to be unloaded, and recruits from the southern provinces were overwhelming.
"No matter what time of war, we must fight for national strength!" Gambit roared like a red-eyed rabbit. "Perhaps excellent tactics and beautiful strategic deception can allow you to achieve temporary benefits!"
"But as long as France persists and as long as our accumulated national strength is mobilized! We will be invincible!"
The balance of victory finally tilted. Just as Gambetta continued to give speeches to boost morale of his troops, a special train came from the south, bringing extremely exciting good news!
