Did the French change their tactics, or did they simply send a group of stragglers during the first batch of attacks?
Marshal Melo knew that the Hussite army had used similar tactics, and that the chariot had achieved some victories in the fifteenth century.
However, as time went by, it was later replaced by the empire's large square formation tactics. The mobility of the chariot and fort was also far inferior to that of the cavalry unit, so it was gradually eliminated.
Now that the French have picked up this thing again, do they regard it as a life-saving straw, or do they have other motives?
There was a considerable distance between the first and second batches of the French army, less than two thousand feet by visual inspection.
However, the formations of the two batches were completely different. The front was advanced by skirmishers, while the rear was a dense formation.
The same thing is that the front and rear troops are equipped with a large number of car forts, and it seems that a small rear-mounted cannon is installed on them.
Compared with the heavy artillery equipped by the imperial troops, this thing can only be said to be inferior to nothing, and it looks very ridiculous on the battlefield.
Whether it is a car fort or a gadget like this, in the eyes of many Spanish officers, they are used to embolden the French losers.
After both sides formed their formations and the French launched their attack, Spanish artillery fired frequently.
It is often seen that car forts are continuously hit by artillery shells, turning into a large cloud of sawdust flying in the sky, and even exploding and injuring nearby French soldiers.
Affected by the smoke generated by its own fire and the southerly wind on the battlefield, the hit rate of this direct fire was very low and was still within the range that the French army could withstand.
For my king!
For Paris!
soldiers!
go ahead!
Bourbon, who was on the front line commanding the operation, considered that the danger level of this blockade was unusual. In order to improve his survival rate, for the first time, he did not wear the white wedding dress outfit, but put on a dark black body-hugging armor.
Since all the soldiers under his command were heavily protected with new iron plates on their heads and torsos, Bourbon did not underestimate the enemy, let alone risk his own life.
He also covered the original armor with a layer of iron to ensure that spears, bows, arrows and bullets could not hurt him.
Although the French army has nearly 200,000 troops, they are scattered in all directions and it is difficult to assemble quickly.
These people now are all the troops that Prime Minister Mazarin can mobilize. Except for the thousands of guards used to protect the king, Paris has almost become an undefended city.
The 20,000 combat troops led by the Duke of Choiseul, Governor of Turin, are still stationed in the northern Apennine Peninsula and will not be able to return to defend the mainland in a short time.
Mazarin also had no intention of giving up Savoy, which was captured after a bloody battle by the French soldiers. The strategic contraction did not include this area.
Marshal Valtay's troops were stuck in Catalonia and could not extricate themselves. He originally thought that the war would go smoothly, but the actual situation was just the opposite.
For fear of being invaded by the Saxon army that had surrendered to Maximilian I, the Duke of Villeroy's Neufville troops were stationed in Lyon, which was Neufville's private territory.
In addition to these three fighting troops, there were many garrison troops stretching from Normandy to Calais.
Now there is no time to even assemble the army. It depends on the abilities of Boudes and Bourbon.
Bourbon's expression and orders were the same as before, but he was completely unsure about using this new tactic.
They are pretending to be calm right now. Since they are fighting with Paris behind them, they must not allow failure, otherwise the consequences will be disastrous.
Fortunately, the infantry under his command already had a good understanding of infantry-tank coordination tactics and knew how to use tanks to cover the advance.
Although the French army lost some infantry, it was far from being defeated and was still gradually shortening the distance between the enemy and ourselves.
Marshal Merlot had an ominous premonition about the large number of chariots and forts equipped by the enemy. After observing again for a while, he immediately ordered a thousand cavalry on the left and right wings to dispatch a thousand cavalry units each to overwhelm the first batch of French infantry units.
Moreover, this sortie must be used to see whether the French army's carriages and corresponding tactics are vulnerable.
Enemy cavalry!
Stop attacking!
Defense in place!
Bourbon in the team immediately gave the order to switch from offense to defense. This is one of the most critical tactics for infantry and tank coordination.
If tanks cannot protect the infantry, then this loose formation attack might as well advance with a square formation.
The soldiers under his command stopped the strenuous operation of pushing the cart and inserted the spears on the wooden frames on both sides of the tank into the round holes in the carriage.
The tank soon transformed into a huge hedgehog, and the small cannon was its fangs!
Bourbon, who was on the front line of fire, did not fight alone. He was accompanied by a group of generals...
It's like this every time. Even though someone complains, the boss pretends not to hear it!
While ordering the first echelon to defend in place, Bourbon also ordered the second echelon to move closer to him.
Judging from the size of the enemy's cavalry, they could only overwhelm the first echelon at most.
If the second echelon follows up in time, it can prevent it from retreating calmly after the impact.
The fierce Spanish cavalry entered the battlefield in a wall-mounted manner. In addition to the standard muskets and foils, each person also had a straight spear in his hand.
This kind of weapon is used to attack enemy infantry phalanxes, and it has proven successful time and time again.
Replace it with shotgun!
quick!
Get ready to block the enemy cavalry!
The gunners in the tank immediately changed their ammunition at the order of their superiors.
The biggest advantage of this "antique" from more than a hundred years ago is that it not only has a fast rate of fire, but also can change ammunition at any time.
The heavily armed Spanish cavalry rushed faster and faster, and the sound of galloping horse hooves was like a flood.
After entering a distance of less than three hundred feet, the speed is about to reach its peak.
However, with the sound of cannons and rising smoke, these cavalrymen were knocked off their feet by the rapidly fired cannonballs and bullets.
Before the enemy's tactics were understood, the two thousand Spanish cavalry were far from being a match for the five hundred tanks and ten thousand French infantry.
What's even more terrible is that Bourbon ordered the tanks to fire at any time, so the infantry fired twice, the latter time at a distance of sixty or seventy feet between the two sides.
This can greatly improve the hit rate, while also causing a devastating blow to the Spanish cavalry troops.
Although hundreds of cavalrymen still broke through the French fire blockade, they were finally defeated by flying grenades.
The shot horse hit the body of the tank hard, and when the blood of the cavalry was gone, it was considered that the last elegy had been sung.
The total number of cavalry who ran back was less than five hundred, and the rest were harvested by artillery, muskets, and grenades.
The casualties of the French infantry were so low that even Bourbon could not believe it, only a mere two hundred people.
It is certainly a very cost-effective thing to exchange one infantryman for six or seven cavalry, so cost-effective that even the other party will definitely not be able to afford it.
Seeing that the result was like this, Marshal Mero, who had always been calm and composed, had doubts about the victory of this battle.
The power of the car fort is so great. Why didn't the French army adopt such tactics on a large scale before?
Now is not the time to consider this issue carefully. The second batch of French troops has already surpassed the previous troops and is crushing towards their own side.
Marshal Melo didn't know if he could destroy the thousands of forts on the opposite side with the sixty heavy cannons in his hands.
Judging from the cavalry charge just now, these car forts will undoubtedly cause serious damage to our own side.
Without destroying the chariot fort, it would be impossible for the infantry phalanx to withstand the advance of the chariot fort.
There is a rapid-fire artillery on each vehicle fort. Even if one's own infantry square consists of nearly a thousand people, it will be bombarded and unable to parry.
At this moment, a scene that was unbelievable to most people on the battlefield, including a large number of French soldiers, happened.
Six huge ships slowly took off into the sky. Because they were painted with French characters and symbols, the morale of the French officers and soldiers who recognized their identities was greatly boosted.
Looking up from the ground, the ferocious shark mouth on the head of the airship looked even more terrifying, and its huge body made the Spanish soldiers shudder.
What kind of weapon is this?
You can actually fly into the sky!
My God~!
Most of the Spanish soldiers who saw the airship for the first time were frightened and their fighting spirit plummeted. Few of them wanted to capture Paris anymore, and they had long forgotten about the mass robbery.
Driven by wind and propellers, six airships driven by French pilots began to slowly fly over the Spanish army.
When the shadow cast by the ground covered the target position, the pilot confirmed that it was correct and began the first air strike in Europe.
Aerial bombs fell from the airship and hit the ground with a whistling whistle.
As explosions and fireballs suddenly erupted, bursts of Spanish screams continued to be heard from the bombing area.
The six airships can only launch a total of 60 aerial bombs, which can cause a psychological shadow to the Spanish soldiers equivalent to 600 or even 6,000 bombs!
The Spaniards were completely unable to resist this kind of aircraft, and Marshal Mero himself watched helplessly as the fireball devoured the lives of his soldiers.
There was no need to wait for Marshal Mello's order. The soldiers, who had already been bombed and had no intention of fighting, instinctively chose to retreat immediately, or to be defeated.
In Marshal Mello's memory, this should be the most miserable failure, and there is no one like it.
The cavalry took the lead in escaping, while the infantry abandoned all encumbrances, including sixty heavy artillery pieces, and fled northward like crazy.
However, on the banks of the Oise River, the defeated Flemish army was fiercely blocked by the French cavalry troops commanded by Boudes.
Almost all Spanish infantry fell prey to the French cavalry and were crushed like pigs on the south side of the river bank.
The cavalry troops found a ford in embarrassment, barely crossed the river, and then continued to retreat north.
Marshal Melo was among them, but the war was far from over.
Boudes led 7,000 French cavalry in hot pursuit and used the Somme River to once again block the defeated Spanish troops.
In the end, Marshal Merlot, who had coveted Paris for a long time, fled back to the Spanish Netherlands with less than five hundred men.
The rest of the troops all stayed on French soil, either dying here and turning into manure, or entering French prisoner-of-war camps alive.
After receiving the news of the great victory, Queen Anne finally felt relieved after turning the corner. She praised Mazarin's strategies and tactics, and especially praised Bourbon, who took the lead in the charge.
Queen Anne requested that readers should see Bourbon's name on the front page of the first edition of the French Journal next year, and the name of Boudes, who had achieved fruitful results, would naturally also appear.
After annihilating 30,000 Spanish elite troops in World War I, the Spanish Netherlands had become Philip IV's weakness.
Mazarin decided to let Boudes and Bourbon lead their troops to pursue the victory and let 50,000 French troops invade this land.
Since their powerful enemy, Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria, has not yet been defeated, the French army does not yet have the conditions to occupy the Spanish Netherlands.
But it was necessary to loot this place, and Mazarin also needed to use this operation to replenish the money that had been spent into the treasury.
Although his predecessor, Richelieu, had saved enough capital for himself, he was always unable to make ends meet, which would lead to pressure from all aspects.
Mazarin believed that as long as Budes and Bourbon did not return empty-handed, then their goal would be achieved, even if they grabbed some people as slaves!
The Spanish soldiers who had been captured, Mazarin also had to be sold at a price.
If their master Philip IV refused to pay, these captives would never want to return to Spain in their lifetime!
Viscount Turenne mentioned in his letter that the prince of the Ming Empire asked those who opposed him to mine, so as to atone for himself and make money for the prince at the same time. Mazarin suddenly felt that this idea was very good...
However, Maximilian I was not an idle person. After receiving the news that Marshal Merlot led his troops to attack Paris, he realized that the perfect time to counterattack had arrived.
The entire battle plan was a pincer offensive, with 50,000 Bavarian troops led by Johann von Wetter all the way to invade eastern France via Metz.
The other was led by Franz von Mercy, one hundred thousand imperial troops, who invaded Alsace and wiped out the local French army.
The two armies then joined forces and headed straight for Paris, if Paris had not been captured by the Allies at that time.
The deviation in the plan was that neither Maximilian I nor the emperor himself expected that Mero's troops would be defeated so quickly, let alone that they would be defeated so miserably.
Merlot's only role was to use this defeat to successfully attract the attention of the main French army and lure 50,000 French troops into the Spanish Netherlands...
While Budes and Bourbon's troops were in the Spanish Netherlands, the armies of Waite and Mercy were sweeping across everything in eastern France.
The Duke of Villeroy, Neufville, led his troops to conduct a heroic blockade. The result was to delay the enemy's attack eastward on Paris. This was all, and all his troops were lost.
After Boudes and Bourbon's troops returned from the northern battlefield, the old enemy's army was less than fifty miles away from Paris!
Paris ushered in its second defense battle in less than three months!
Fortunately, this time Mazarin also mobilized troops from other regions to assist the king, which increased the total strength of the French army to 70,000, but it was only half the size of the invading enemy.
How to win?
You can only rely on new tactics and new weapons!
Through the successful experience gained from the previous defeat of Melo, the young Bourbon has believed and determined that the coordinated tactics of airships and infantry tanks will be an invincible strategy against the ground.
As long as you give him enough airships and tanks, he can make the Holy Roman Empire no longer holy and bow to the great France!
But there is no such time at the moment. The commanding talents of Waite and Mercy are not inferior to Melo, and Mercy has an amazing battlefield sense and can always make correct predictions.
After some looting, the 150,000 imperial troops were no longer affected by hunger and could exert their due combat effectiveness.
On the morning of August 22, the two sides launched a decisive battle twenty miles east of Paris...
