Life of Being a Crown Prince in France - Chapter 1318: 1223: Narrow Paths Cross
Chapter 1318: Chapter 1223: Narrow Paths Cross
On the northwest side of Lake Lucerne, Suvorov was leading 50,000 Russian troops quickly returning along the original route.
In fact, he had already left the Wiedensville battlefield by noon today.
Yes, he had speculated two days ago that the French Army’s ambush points might have been more than one place. And he quickly noticed that when facing the attack from Rosenberg’s less than 30,000 men, the enemy chose to hold a defensive stance, leading him to immediately deduce that there might be other French Army forces attacking him.
Adhering to the principle of prioritizing offense, he immediately pulled back the main force and turned to strike behind.
Based on experience, he deduced that the French probably wouldn’t deploy in Schwyz, as it was too close to Blucher, making it easy for the Russian and Prussian armies to form a combined force.
So, they most likely came from the direction of Warren.
He then attacked the northwest side as quickly as possible, wanting to seize the opportunity to swiftly defeat the French by surprise.
Later, he would lead his troops back to Wiedensville and slowly take out the French Army there.
If Blucher’s pace was fast enough to help on the flank, it might even be possible to annihilate the French forces in Switzerland entirely.
That night, Suvorov’s Corps received bread and wine shipped from Chug City in Switzerland—the order from the Federal Congress had some effect.
Since they didn’t have to wait for supplies, he ordered his soldiers to march another two kilometers before setting up camp to rest.
At dawn the next day, Suvorov’s army continued rushing towards Warren.
According to his estimation, from when the French Army at Wiedensville discovered them and then delivered the message to Warren, would take at least a day at the fastest.
Then, the French Army in Warren would start a forced march, and by now they might have traveled about 5 Russian miles, which is less than 6 kilometers.
So, if he maintained his current speed, they would encounter the French Army between noon and three o’clock in the afternoon today.
He could already imagine the shock and helplessness on the faces of the French when they saw tens of thousands of troops suddenly appear before them.
However, at this moment, a light blue hot air balloon floated in the sky to the north.
Russian soldiers soon spotted it and reported it to the officers, and finally, the message reached Suvorov.
Suvorov had heard about this new military equipment—hot air balloons—from Prussia, and though he hadn’t delved deeply into it, he knew this meant there were enemy forces nearby.
He immediately ordered the troops to deploy in combat formation, at the same time, sent cavalry to maneuver on the flanks. As the Russian Army was hastily forming up, shrill whistles suddenly pierced the sky, followed by more than a dozen black shadows that passed like death through the Russian soldiers.
Blood and flesh splattered immediately, with screams and cries resounding continuously.
Suvorov only felt a mess in his mind; he could discern that at least a dozen 12-pound cannons were firing at him, which was undoubtedly the main force of the French Army.
But where did these people come from?
He had repeatedly scouted the hills along the Reuss River, and it was absolutely impossible to miss such a large group of French forces, so the enemy must have started from Warren at least.
Even if they had been marching at full speed the whole time, they couldn’t possibly be here now!
The distance from Warren to here is a full 15 kilometers, and the French should have received the news of his arrival at Wiedensville only at twilight yesterday.
Unless they could fly, it would’ve been impossible to cover such a distance in half a morning!
Little did he know, the French Army was equipped with a large number of high-tech mobile Sharp Signal Cars.
And Switzerland’s mountainous terrain was most suitable for signal tower communication.
Earlier, Sailu Li’er had set up two mobile signal cars on the hills south of Lake Zurich to facilitate communication with his own right wing—the small mountain southwest of Wiedensville made his right wing somewhat distant from the central army.
As a result, after being attacked by the Russian Army, Sailu Li’er, while sending cavalry to deliver the message, also had his signalers transmit the information to the furthest signal car.
The signal car leader on the hill realized the gravity of the situation and ordered the horses pulling the signal car to be unhitched, then transformed himself into a cavalryman and rushed towards Warren.
At that time, their position was outside the battlefield, and they did not encounter any Russian reconnaissance cavalry on the way.
Thus, by desperately pushing the limits of the horses, this leader reached Warren a little after three o’clock in the afternoon.
Subsequently, Massena immediately led his troops towards Wiedensville.
It was precisely the “squeezed-out” 9 kilometers by this mobile signal car that allowed Massena to seize the initiative.
After the 12-pound cannons roared for a while, slightly smaller cannon sounds were heard from the Russian Army’s left side; these were from the French Mounted Artillery’s 6-pound cannons.
Suvorov desperately tried to compose himself, and after quickly strategizing, he issued a series of orders:
“Vistayev, immediately lead the reserve cavalry to locate the enemy artillery, and disperse them at all costs.
“Rosenberg’s Corps to outflank from the Lake Zurich direction, if no opportunity is found, continue returning to Zurich.
“Vorotov’s Corps, prepare to face the enemy head-on…
“Gorchakov, go around from the southern mountain…”
His responses were quite effective, pulling back the vanguard corps that had been ambushed, letting the reserve troops hold the line, while dispersing the forces as much as possible. Since his side was already in chaos, he needed to scatter the French Army’s formation as well.
But he forgot there was a hot air balloon overhead that could take in everything in the vicinity.
Upon learning the Russian Army’s movements, Massena decisively ordered a concentration of superior forces to forcefully break through from the front.
Meanwhile, he sent out Udino and Gassen, each leading 5,000 troops to intercept the enemy dispersing towards the flanks.
Ten minutes later, a formation of 5,000 soldiers in hundreds of columns, under covering fire from over ten thousand skirmishers, surged from a two-kilometer-wide frontline towards the Russian defense.
Vorotov personally shouted commands at the front of the infantry line, ordering the soldiers to maintain formation.
Nevertheless, after just a few volleys from the French rifled guns, the Russian defense line showed many breaches, and the soldiers began retreating in panic.
Then, dense columns of French troops surged forward.
Some Russian soldiers, not yet panicked, hurriedly raised their guns to retaliate.
On the gray infantry line, sparse flashes of gunfire sparkled, yet the nearby French infantry only staggered slightly before continuing to advance quickly in step with the drums.
Indeed, most Russian soldiers were still equipped with flintlock guns, which had inferior airtightness compared to caplock guns, making it impossible, even at 40 paces, to penetrate the French soldiers’ commonly equipped bullet-proof inserts.
Vorotov, seeing that the French columns had already begun to expand, gritted his teeth and ordered a bayonet charge.
However, his order fell into the abyss like a stone; this was typical of the Russians in battle—they dared to charge with bayonets against cannons during fair winds, but in adversity, they were all disorganized and rarely heeded the officers’ commands.
Finally, the advancing French soldiers completed their lateral transition and at a distance of 50 paces unleashed their first volley.
The Minie Bullets accurately flew toward their targets, causing a red mist to drive up from the entire line of Russian infantry.
