King's Landing in France

Page 139

Schwarzenberg said as he handed the gun to the chief of staff.

The chief of staff fiddled with the mechanical structure of the breech position: "It seems that the lock is okay, but I really can't see how they deal with the problem that the rifling will eat gunpowder residue."

Schwarzenberg: "This kind of weapon needs to be rinsed with water or something after a while to wash away the gunpowder residue from the narrow rifling. In my opinion, this is a weapon that is far from the actual combat stage. The cobbler actually used all these things.

"Well, that's all about Frost's new gun."

Speaking of which, Schwarzenberg turned to the soldier who ran back with the gun: "You swam over, how about it, can your feet reach the bottom of the river?"

The soldier nodded and replied, "You can get there. The river is actually not very deep. Except for the people in the middle line, most people should be able to cross the river by walking."

The current infantry attack formation generally adopts three rows of horizontal formations. The formation rule is that the tallest people are in the first row, the second tallest people are in the third row, and the second row in the middle is mainly dwarfs. .

As for why there is such an arrangement, it is mainly because the Prussian infantry drill code stipulates this.

After the defeat in the Seven Years War, all parties involved in the war basically followed the Prussian regulations, copying them one by one.

During this process, the French did not dare to change the Prussian regulations at all, for fear that if they changed a single word, the regulations would become ineffective, and they would not be able to explode the power of Frederick the Great's era.

The Austrians did not give up much, so the Austrian army was also short and sandwiched in the middle like a tall man with sandwich biscuits.

The Prussian tradition is copied in its entirety, and no one even asks "why make this sandwich biscuit model".

Even if someone wants to ask now, Frederick the Great, who presided over the formulation of the regulations, has passed away. Unless there is a psychic technique, it is impossible to get an answer.

Schwarzenberg ordered to the chief of staff: "Take the highest platoon in the army as the vanguard, go down the river immediately, and cross the river to attack the mob on the opposite side!"

He paused, and then added: "Under the cover of the shock troops, the engineers quickly complete the assumption of the pontoon bridge!"

※※※

An Ning saw the coalition forces start to go down the river.

"Damn it, is it the assault just now that let the commander on the other side know that the river is not really deep?"

An Ning muttered.

The upper Marne is not suitable for navigation, the water is shallow and the current is fast.

Theoretically speaking, as long as you can find a place with shallow water depth, you have a certain chance of success in forcibly crossing the river.

Apparently the enemy's assault on the precise shooters just now convinced Prince Schwarzenberg that he had found the shoal he needed.

So he attacked without hesitation.

An Ning looked at the soldiers on the other side who started to make dumplings, and said to Berthier: "Convey my order to the whole army, and the real test will come. France is big, but we have nowhere to go, and Paris is behind us!" "

Berthier: "France is big, but we have nowhere to go... You are a genius at oratory and morale."

No, that's not my original, I copied it...

Forget it, who cares, copied everything, starting today, this sentence is my famous saying.

Chapter 238 The Musician Lost His Hearing

Beethoven watched the enemy begin to attack across the board, and quietly raised the tempo of his drumming.

This should prompt comrades to shoot faster.

Beethoven glanced at the comrades beside him, and was satisfied to find that none of them noticed that the tempo was fast at all, but they were all focused on loading, and their movements were driven by the music to become faster.

Because of the urgency of the situation, Frost issued an order more than a month ago that the newly recruited National Guard soldiers will not practice formation at all, but only practice shooting and loading.

Now this order is effective, and the soldiers have formed basic muscle movements for loading, so that they did not notice that Beethoven quietly increased the size.

Because of the continuous shooting, now Beethoven can hardly see the scene on the river bank in front of him, and his entire field of vision is full of white smoke.

In this case, the soldiers can continue to shoot because they have made reference objects on the fortifications in advance when building the fortifications.

As long as the soldiers raise their guns according to this reference object, they can ensure that the barrel of the gun is probably facing the enemy coming ashore.

Then the rest can be handed over to probability.

Beethoven continued to observe everyone's situation while beating the drums, and quietly accelerated the drumming a little bit, but something went wrong immediately.

He saw a soldier forget to take out the cleaning rod after using the cleaning rod to compact the blocked paper ball.

The gun with the cleaning rod still in the barrel opened fire.

The result is that the cleaning rod flies out of the barrel, traces a very small parabola, and disappears into the darkness.

Beethoven wanted to say sorry to the soldier who lost his pass. It was him who increased the speed of the song at will, which made him make mistakes in his busy schedule.

Then he watched the Ma Daha start a new round of loading.The first step of loading is to pull out the cleaning rod from the bracket under the gun, and then use the cleaning rod to clean the muzzle first, and deal with the incompletely burned gunpowder to prevent the projectile from being stuck during loading.

And this Ma Daha, after fumbling under the barrel of his gun for a long time, he realized that his cleaning rod was missing.

Beethoven didn't stop playing the drums while Ma Daha was looking for the clearing rod.

So Ma Daha became even more anxious, and then he quickly pulled out someone else's cleaning rod, and began to complete his own reloading steps.

The one whose cleaning rod was taken away was also very confused. He thumped Ma Daha's shoulder and asked, "Where's your own cleaning rod?"

Ma Daha spread his hands: "I don't know! It disappeared all of a sudden, and it was fine just now. Anyway, let me borrow your cleaning stick..."

"Then what should I use?" The person who was robbed of the cleaning rod said angrily, raised his hand after speaking, and snatched his own cleaning rod back with lightning speed.

Now that Ma Daha was left, holding a rifle with no cleaning rod in a daze.

The bad news is, he's on the battlefield now, and taking his cleaning rod is tantamount to making his gun useless.

The good news is that it is now in the free shooting stage, and there is a shortage of officers in the French army, so no one will take care of this soldier who lost his pass for the time being.

Ma Daha was still looking for the cleaning rod in vain, but Beethoven couldn't see it, and reminded in a low voice: "Your cleaning rod was just shot out by you and the bullet, and it flew a little in front of the fortification."

Ma Daha immediately looked forward, and saw his own cleaning rod on the ground with sharp eyes—or something in the shape of a cleaning rod.

Immediately he rolled over the cover.

The officer of the company noticed this guy and let go of his voice and shouted: "What are you doing! Come back! Come back to the back of the bunker! There are stray bullets everywhere, it's very dangerous to run around now!"

When the officer said this, Ma Daha bent down in satisfaction, picked up the cleaning rod he had lost, and straightened up contentedly——

At this moment, an enemy shell flew over and hit the unlucky Tong Tiao in the waist.

In an instant, the poor man was broken down the middle, and the spine was completely broken, leaving only some skin and nerves on the left side still disconnected.

Beethoven was greatly shocked by the bloody scene that suddenly appeared in front of him.

Only at this time did he realize very clearly that he was now on the battlefield of narrow escapes.

Beethoven suddenly felt sick, probably because the scene just now was too exciting.

In order not to affect the drumming, Beethoven forcibly swallowed the vomit that reached his mouth.

Because of re-swallowing the vomit, Beethoven's mouth was filled with the taste of bitter bile and stomach acid, as if he had taken a big mouthful of swill in his mouth.

He couldn't help but rejoice that he was a drum player, not a flute player.

The shooting continued.

Suddenly a shell hit the wooden fence in front of Beethoven's row.

The flying sawdust hurt many people at once.

Beethoven suddenly felt a buzzing in his head, and then severe tinnitus engulfed his ears.

He could hardly hear the sound of his own drum at all. It was clearly the sound of beating with his own hands, but it sounded like it was coming from hundreds of meters away.

Beethoven had a sense of foreboding.

You can't be deaf, can you?

The cruelest punishment for a musician is to deprive him of his hearing!

A strong anxiety dominated Beethoven. He wanted to run away from the battlefield immediately and go to the doctor to have a look at his ears.

But he overcame the urge and continued to play military music with physical skill.

※※※

An Ning didn't know that Beethoven, who had no ear problems in this time and space, had just lost his hearing.

He is observing the battlefield, ready to personally lead his guards to counterattack at any time.

His elite forces are all in Paris, and now the only one in the entire army who has sufficient training is An Ning's own guards.

Putting in the guard at a critical time will have the final effect!

However, a better choice soon appeared in front of An Ning.

An Ning suddenly heard someone shouting: "Look! It's Colonel La Salle!"

He turned his head immediately, and then saw La Salle's cavalry brigade coming along the river from upstream.

He immediately tore off a post-it note and wrote an order by hand: La Salle, I order you to rush along the river beach and sweep away the enemies who are forcibly crossing the river.

After finishing writing, he shouted: "Order! Come, give it to Lasalle."

The orderly saluted and ran away immediately.

Moments later, Lasalle's troops turned around and began advancing along the river bank.

The horseshoes made a lot of water splashes on the river beach. From a distance, La Salle's cavalry brigade seemed to be riding the waves.

Then Lasalle's characteristic cry came: "ALIALIALIA!"

It's similar to the voice that the Conqueror King Yin Skandar shouted when he launched the king's army in "FATE/ZERO".

The cavalry coming from the side rushed into the enemy who had just crossed the river.

The raised saber reflected the sun's light.

The blood of the felled Allied soldiers stained the Marne red.

The enemies who forcibly crossed the river were defeated. Those who walked behind turned around and waded across the water to run to the opposite bank, while many who walked in front knelt down and surrendered.

Others missed their feet, slipped and fell in the water, and were swept away by the current.

The first day of attack and defense on the Marne was a French victory.

Chapter 239

At about five o'clock in the afternoon, the two sides withdrew their troops.

An Ning always felt that fighting like this was a bit like going to work. Every day, he went to work and bombarded him with cannons, and then returned to camp after work.

This was a brand new experience for An Ning. Before, he had come up to a battle and directly defeated the enemy, and then captured prisoners all over the mountains and plains.

"How many days will we have to fight like this?" An Ning asked Berthier.

Berthier looked up at the camp of the coalition forces on the other side of the river, and replied: "Judging from the depletion of the enemy's troops today, if the enemy has not been replenished, they will retreat after about three days of fighting."

An Ning: "Three days...can't you simply defeat the enemy?"

Berthier: "Why, are you planning to attack at night again?"

An Ning actually didn't think about night raids, but when Berthier mentioned it, he remembered, yes, night raids are still possible...

He turned to look at Berthier and smiled slightly: "You understand me."

Berthier raised his eyebrows: "After all, your night attack two years ago started a series of chain reactions. Looking back now, Lafayette probably wouldn't have lost so badly without that night attack. But now If you want to attack the coalition forces at night, you must first overcome the Marne River in front of you."

Speaking of which, Berthier looked towards the Marne River in front of him.

An Ning: "Can you consider going around?"

"Did you mean to go around from the upstream ferry? It's too far away. Our night attack troops have to set off in the afternoon. Considering that we can't walk along the river, we will be spotted by the scout cavalry on the other side. Advance the departure time."

An Ning nodded: "I'll think about it. Now I want to inspect the troops and boost morale. I'll leave other chores to you."

Berthier: "Understood."

After finishing speaking, An Ning beckoned to his stable boy Julian, jumped on his big white horse and left.

Berthier muttered: "Just tell me to confirm the situation of your acquaintances."

※※※

An Ning knew where Beethoven's troops were deployed.

Berthier has made arrangements, and this unit should not be hit by the enemy's frontal impact.

Theoretically speaking, Le Sheng should have been playing soy sauce for a day today, and he killed some enemy soldiers when the enemy sent people to build the pontoon bridge.