Chapter 327 Miscalculation

Chapter 328 Miscalculation

Blücher kicked over the Italian-style carved chair, grabbed the signalman's collar, and asked sternly: "What's going on? How many French people are here?"

"About 10,000 or more..." The latter said tremblingly with his head down, "Their infantry line broke through the Dutch front line with only one attack."

"Ten thousand people?" Blücher loosened his grip and let go of the signalman, but still shook his head.

Even if the enemy's size was miscalculated, there were nearly 7,000 Dutch troops, plus the cavalry and artillery he sent, blocking the mountain pass.

With the defense line arranged in advance, it should not be a problem to resist 10,000 French troops for a whole day.

But now, they have only held on for an hour!

Is it possible that the Duke of Brunswick's evaluation of the fighting power of the Southern Netherlands is wrong? Those guys are actually just trash that can't stand a single blow...

That's not right! Blücher immediately shook his head again. Those same people fought extremely tenaciously against the Austrian army, which outnumbered them by a large margin. Their morale even surpassed that of the Prussian infantry.

"General," the staff officer beside him saw that he was "dreaming away" and hurriedly reminded him loudly, "How should we deal with it now?"

Blücher suddenly came to his senses. Yes, now is not the time to worry about the fighting power of the Southern Netherlands. His army was cut off from the middle by the French. If it is not handled properly, it is very likely to suffer a catastrophic disaster.

He tried to calm himself down, walked quickly to the map, hesitated for a moment, pointed to a position marked with X on the east side, which was the position of the Austrian remnants, and said to the messenger: "Let the Backhaus Regiment and the Altmann Regiment leave 1,000 people to keep an eye on Leo, and the other troops will withdraw immediately."

"The Dietlind Corps must arrive here before 2 pm!" He pointed to the southeast direction on the map vigorously. After the French army broke through the defense line of the Southern Netherlands Army, that place became the back of the French army.

Blücher took a deep breath at last: "Maximilian and two regiments are here to delay the French army. The artillery and the rest of the infantry moved north to set up a defense line in the town of Wensele.

"We still have the advantage in manpower. As long as we fight steadily, we will be able to repel the French on the front battlefield!"

After losing Witte's Southern Netherlands Army and part of the cavalry, Blücher still has 16,000 soldiers. If he joins with the Prussian army stationed in the Wensele area, his troops will be close to 20,000.

At this time, Blücher only needs to shrink the main force backwards and shrink the corps sent to the east and west inwards to form a pocket formation. Then, with the advantage of manpower, he can reverse the unfavorable situation in one fell swoop.

"Yes, General! "The herald turned and walked out of the tent, quickly passing his order to the entire army.

...

On the gentle slope several kilometers away in the northeast, Leo looked at the Prussian army gathering more and more with a pale face, and said to Lefebvre beside him in a trembling voice: "Major, there are about 6,000 to 7,000 enemies, and they are carrying cannons...

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's troops have not arrived yet, should we retreat to the north first?"

Although Lefebvre also had a solemn face-he only had 2,000 people, Leo's Austrian army was almost useless, and it would be extremely difficult to deal with more than 6,000 Prussian troops with cannons.

But he shook his head firmly: "No, His Royal Highness will definitely come to reinforce us before noon."

He smiled again: "Even if His Royal Highness didn't come, I wouldn't leave here. Retreat is not an honor for a soldier."

Just as he was about to let the cavalry sneak attack their cannons while the Prussians were arranging their formations, he suddenly saw a chaos in the enemy's position.

He raised his telescope and saw more than a dozen Prussian messengers riding horses and shuttling back and forth in the army, obviously announcing some important orders.

Soon, a hussar came with a whip and shouted to him: "Commander, the rear of the Prussian army is turning around and seems to be retreating."

Lefebvre's eyes lit up immediately, and he patted Leo on the shoulder and laughed: "Look, I told you, your highness is here to help us!"

Although the latter's military rank was three levels higher than his, he smiled and nodded indifferently at this time: "Yes, you are right. We are finally safe, oh, thank God! Praise the heroic Crown Prince!

"Now I have to go back to the tent and have a cup of coffee to relieve my nervous spirit."

"Wait!" Lefebvre grabbed him and raised the telescope again to observe, "If the Prussians retreated because of your highness's attack, we can't let them do as they wish. "

Leo was stunned: "You, what are you going to do?"

Lefebvre smiled: "We will take the initiative!"

"No, no! Are you kidding..."

Lefebvre proved his seriousness with his actions. Only half an hour later, his regiment and the two cavalry companies that came with him dragged the Austrian army and began to launch a fierce attack on the Prussians opposite.

The reason why Lefebvre wanted to bring the Austrian army was because he knew that the Prussians' target was Leo, so as long as the Austrian army was around, the Prussians' attack firepower would fall more on them.

Altmann, the Prussian commander in charge of chasing Leo, never expected that the Austrians, who were absolutely inferior in strength, dared to take the initiative.

However, the order of Marquis Blücher was for him to return to the rescue immediately. At this time, except for the 1,000 people at the rear, all other soldiers had entered the marching state.

He had no choice but to grit his teeth and urge the troops to speed up their evacuation. The deployment of the Marquis was the most important.

But before his main force had walked one kilometer, there were waves of horse hooves behind him - Lefebvre was sure to win even if he faced the same number of Prussian troops, not to mention that there were only 1,000 enemy troops.

He personally led the column to charge, and almost unimpededly defeated the remaining troops, and then followed Altmann closely.

Murat looked at the winding Prussian marching column in the distance, and his heart was excited and excited. Today, the Guards Corps has been defending, and he has no chance to gain military merit. Now he finally has the opportunity to make up for his boast - against this kind of infantry without formation, it is not impossible to kill ten of them.

With the order of the cavalry company commander, Murat began to trot, and then waved his saber to kill the Prussian cavalry who rushed to defend.

…

Blücher’s guards had just loaded his luxurious furniture onto the carriage and were about to urge their horses forward when they saw two hussars rushing past them like crazy and shouting at Blücher not far ahead: “General, there are a large number of French troops behind us!”