Facing the 150,000 Holy Roman Empire troops rushing towards them with great momentum, the 20,000 French troops mobilized from various places to defend Paris already seemed a little frightened.
The enemy's army almost covered the entire field opposite, and their strength was twice that of our own. What's more, they were all veterans who had experienced hundreds of battles, which was not the case with the French army.
As a result of the elimination of the Spanish elite led by Melo and the sacking of the Spanish Netherlands, the morale of the victorious troops of Boudes and Bourbon was high.
The soldiers under the Duke of Villeroy, Neufville, were in just the opposite situation. They were frightened by the enemy and did not want to fight in the field anymore. It was best to defend the city.
The same goes for other brother troops who were in the same situation as Neufville. None of them wanted to be devoured by the locust army on the opposite side within half a day.
Although Wallenstein, the leader of the locust army, died, most of this army, which did no evil and did no evil, was retained by the enemy emperor.
Wherever you go, there is almost no grass growing.
In fact, if Ferdinand III had not had very limited money in his pocket, the size of the locust army attacking Paris at this time would have reached more than 300,000...
The emperor himself believed that it was a very wise move to bring the war to the enemy country, because he could not only use military operations to weaken France's national power, but also support war with war. He could feed such a large army without spending much money.
This locust army consists of ten artillery companies, carrying 120 cannons, and 30,000 cavalry. It has extremely strong offensive power whether in formation battles or assaults.
After some counting by the French generals, more than a hundred square formations had been set up on the opposite side, but they were much more terrifying than the formation that Merlot had commanded before.
Mercy's intention was very clear and simple, which was to use the strength advantage after joining Waite's troops to force the French army to fight to the death in order to defend Paris.
If our side wins, not only can we eliminate the main force of the French army and completely reverse the strategic decline, we can also capture Paris and enable the troops to obtain a large amount of supplies, enough to meet the expenses of the next six months.
On the contrary, it can also defeat both sides, and it seems that they are not taking advantage. In fact, this is not a problem at all for the powerful Shinra Empire. Replenishing a new soldier is only a matter of a few silver coins.
In particular, it was necessary to take advantage of the dissatisfaction of nobles across France with the young King Louis XIV and Queen Anne, and make achievements on the battlefield, which could prompt France to withdraw from the war amid internal and external troubles.
Without the pressure brought by this old enemy, it would be much easier for the empire to free up its troops to deal with Sweden's attack.
soldiers!
This enemy seems to be overwhelming in numbers, but in fact there is nothing to fear at all!
We defeated the Spanish loser before, and today we can defeat the enemy in person!
We have airships, tanks, mortars, and grenades, but the enemy's troops are completely wiped out.
The initiative on the battlefield is in our hands. If you want to turn it into a victory, you only need to be brave! brave! Be brave again!
For France!
For Paris!
For His Majesty the King!
I need you to keep moving forward!
The final victory must belong to us!
attack!
The infantry-tank coordination tactic was very much in line with Bourbon's appetite, especially the huge defeat of Merlot, which greatly increased Bourbon's confidence. The words of encouragement before the war were naturally very morale-boosting.
The invading enemy carried more artillery than Merlot's troops, but that was all. Bourbon did not ignore this.
Like the last confrontation, the French army took the lead in launching the attack, led by the troops led by Bourbon himself.
This time, with the cavalry commanded by Boudes as cover on both sides, Bourbon became even more courageous.
He ordered all 30,000 infantrymen under his command to form skirmish formations, using tanks as arrows, to attack the enemy formation.
The tank was modified from a horse-drawn carriage. Although an iron plate was installed in the front, it still could not withstand direct fire from heavy artillery shells.
Fortunately, the Bourbon troops had enough tanks. After a tank was destroyed, the surviving infantrymen would quickly run behind the nearby tanks and continue moving forward according to regulations.
The heavy artillery of the Holy Roman Empire troops was very powerful, but the rate of fire was very frustrating to the two commanders. The fastest rate of fire was only ten to twelve rounds per hour.
We can’t expect every shot to hit the target. It would be surprising enough to hit a third of prey at a distance of half a mile...
The imperial artillery can fire close to the ground and penetrate a French column at close range, but only if the distance is close enough.
There is a mound in the open space before the two sides. Even if it is only as tall as one person, it is enough to block the path of the artillery shells.
The most terrible thing is that the massive smoke generated after the artillery is fired is almost a nightmare for our own artillery.
No matter before or now, half an hour after the two sides started fighting, the artillery could only fire in the smoke.
Therefore, regardless of the artillery of various countries, the hit rate above a quarter mile is very impressive!
Even in a naval battle, the battleships of both sides would face each other and engage in slap-in-the-face shooting.
With enough smoke blocking the line of sight, and tanks in front of them responsible for blocking the enemy's artillery shells, the attacking French infantry became much more courageous, and their confidence gradually increased.
Bourbon, like last time, was still directing the battle from the front line of fire. He would supervise the battle wherever the forward rushed.
Bourbon, who has become a great hero throughout France, cannot miss the opportunity to become famous throughout the ages again. Any general who dares to escape on his own will be severely punished.
Being able to defeat or even severely damage the Holy Roman Empire's army in front of him, Bourbon believed that his status was comparable to that of Roland, the knight under Charlemagne.
There was "Song of Roland" before, and there will be "Song of Bourbon" in the future!
Maybe this is just a fantasy now, but what if the French army could capture Vienna?
Maybe "Bourbon Song" can not only become a reality, but also become a popular sound of nature!
As the commander-in-chief of the campaign, Boudes next to Bourbon was not as enthusiastic as Bourbon, but he also agreed with Bourbon's view.
That is, the focus of this battle is still the infantry confrontation. If the enemy's infantry phalanx is not defeated, our own cavalry will not be able to use it.
The combination of muskets and spears was originally a headache for the cavalry, otherwise the Spanish Phalanx and the Morris Phalanx would not be so famous.
However, the emergence of tanks, or new car forts, has to a certain extent broken the invincibility of the infantry phalanx.
The cooperation of infantry and tanks has upgraded mobile combat to a whole new level. If there are airships to help, the so-called phalanx is just a huge target!
In Budes' view, although Bourbon was fanatical, he at least had an enterprising spirit. We also needed such a general to lead his troops to attack the large enemy infantry phalanx.
Our own cavalry is an extremely valuable mobile force on the battlefield, and it is impossible to devote all of it to the enemy's infantry phalanx.
Of course, as a senior and elder, Budes would not watch young Bourbon lead his men to die in vain.
This time it is still the "old rule". Calculate the time and the airship takes off. As long as the wind direction is not too deceptive, it can scare the opponent again.
However, after the airship airbags were inflated, the pilots discovered a very embarrassing thing.
The wind direction is not bad, but the problem is that the wind is not strong enough...
In other words, all the forward momentum of the airship requires the pilot to crank or pedal hard to make the propeller at the tail rotate!
Bourbon, who was supervising the battle on the front line, turned his head and looked behind him from time to time. The meaning of this action was to know the situation of the airship at any time.
It is illusory to let your men rush into battle, but it is real to use airships to scare the enemy!
Bourbon also didn't want to see a scene where his own airship dropped a bomb overhead and hit him when the two sides were fighting together!
This great hero's tactic is to scare the enemy away when the airship comes out, so that he can win another big victory.
But this time is different from last time. The scorching sun is still scorching the land of France, and the high temperature has not decreased at all.
This means that after the temperature of the air outside the airbag rises, the temperature of the air inside the airbag must rise even higher to allow the airship to fly.
After charging for a long time, the pilots found that this big guy was not moving and could not take off!
The instructors from the East flipped through the manual for a long time and took out the thermometer, and then they found the reason...
Without the help of the airship for the time being, Bourbon, who was leading the assault from the front, had to change from a feint attack to a real attack!
Seeing a signal flare being fired from the rear, it translated to mean that the airship would be delayed in arriving at the battlefield.
After Bourbon realized this, he was really angry and helpless.
Even if he was only half an hour late, he couldn't let his men stand still?
There is no other way but to attack by force!
Fortunately, Budes reinforced two hundred mortar trucks to accompany the infantry in combat, and they played their due role at this time.
Being able to fire over two hundred explosive packets at the enemy infantry square at one time is definitely a big surprise!
As two hundred black spots fell into the designated area, a series of violent explosions suddenly occurred.
A phalanx of nearly a thousand people was blown out of an obvious hole just because a mortar shell fell in.
Even if it happens to land on the tip of a standing spear, the explosive pack will explode in the air, and its lethality cannot be underestimated.
Against infantry phalanxes, this weapon is much more powerful than a trebuchet.
As long as the artillery masters the loading technique, it can fire once every minute.
Since the artillery positions of the Holy Roman Empire troops were deployed in front of the infantry square, the thick smoke caused the infantry in the rear to have no idea what was coming from the opposite side.
Thanks to the fact that the opponent's infantry formations are numerous and cover a large area, the French artillery can hit the target without much precision after learning how to measure the distance with their thumbs.
Specifically, as long as the cannonball can fly into the smoke and explode, then it is considered a success!
Whether it explodes more or less depends on personal luck, and you can't get any medals anyway.
The French army's infantry-tank coordination and mortar follow-up tactics were far from reaching the level of the Eastern allies, but they still caused great damage and chaos to the imperial troops.
Things falling from the sky continued to explode, causing the originally orderly square formation to be devastated. Soldiers who had been shot and fell to the ground were everywhere, and the blood flowing out directly dyed the grass red.
Some of the phalanxes that suffered more than one explosion were directly blown away, either turning into several small phalanxes, or directly becoming stragglers, until they were ordered by the generals to join other large phalanxes.
There were no fewer than ten phalanxes that suffered this misfortune, which seemed like a small number, but as time went by, the French army continued to attack them, and the speed was much faster than its own artillery fire.
About a quarter of an hour later, the French tanks had reached the front of the smoke.
In other words, the distance from the Imperial gun emplacement in the smoke was only five hundred feet at most.
At such a short distance, the small cannon used by the tank is no less lethal to infantry than the heavy cannon.
If the distance is further shortened, the rapid-fire cannon's projected firepower is greater than that of the heavy artillery.
Although hundreds of tanks and more than 2,000 infantrymen have been lost, Bourbon's confidence has not been affected much.
Merci, who was observing the dynamics of the battlefield on the high ground, experienced an unprecedented experience from being unable to understand at first to being unable to dismount.
Originally, he planned to invest in cavalry units, but Merci also knew the specific performance and role of the artillery in the opponent's car fort.
Rapid-fire cannons fire shotgun shells to deal with cavalry, especially if they are mounted in carriages, which will leave the latter with no power to fight back.
With a large number of chariots and forts as cover, the French infantry was less afraid of its own cavalry units when attacking.
Plan A is to dispatch cavalry units first to attack the advancing French infantry and vehicle forts.
The result was that the other side also sent out cavalry, and the two sides fought together.
Our side also has to invest a large number of infantry into the battle, otherwise we cannot ensure that our cavalry can win.
But once our own infantry gives up their formation, it means they have to use muskets and spears to deal with the cannons on the car forts!
This is essentially the same as letting the infantry die, so Merci chose plan B, which is to stay put.
Messi was very clear about the purpose of his trip. The primary goal was to severely damage the main force of the French army, and the secondary goal was to capture Paris.
If neither the primary goal nor the secondary goal is accomplished, at least it must be ensured that the army can safely withdraw from the enemy's land.
The problem now is that it seems that the final bottom line cannot be completed...
After the troops ran into the smoke, visibility was extremely poor, only a hundred feet at most.
So Bourbon ordered the troops to stop advancing and fire on the spot, indiscriminately!
If you engage in exchange of fire with the enemy at a limited distance, you may fall into passive hand-to-hand combat if you give up.
This is the countermeasure that Bourbon racked his brains to come up with. Even without the help of airships, his entire army will not be wiped out.
As they entered bombing distance, the French infantry threw all the grenades they carried towards the opposite side.
Thirty thousand people equals about 150,000 grenades!
The front row has finished dropping bombs, the back row will follow!
If you really can't get up, just hand over the grenade!
Bombs dropped at close range are more powerful than several musket volleys!
Bourbon is like plotting against two senior neighboring countries in the smoke...
The combat effectiveness of the 30,000 French troops when dropping bombs was equivalent to 150,000 people, while the combat effectiveness of the opposing imperial troops was only equivalent to 30,000 people when they formed a formation to face the enemy. The scale of the two sides was inadvertently reversed.
The most terrible thing is that facing the shotgun shells fired by hundreds of rapid-fire cannons, the defensive power of the imperial infantry is almost zero.
In front of the tank guns that kept firing, the infantry phalanx that the empire was proud of was harvested like a wheat field.
As a last resort, Waite and Mercy successively ordered the infantry in their front positions to abandon their square formations and attack the French army directly.
How to attack?
Just rush forward!
The imperial cavalry troops who received the order were responsible for cutting off the retreat of the French infantry, so that they could attack from both front and rear.
Mercy tried to turn defeat into victory, first eat the French troops who had thrown themselves into the trap, and then completely defeat the opponent!
