Fox of France

Soon after the first round of salvo passed, the ten cannons fired a second round of salvo. This volley again caused dozens of casualties and threw the Prussian army into chaos. Everyone knows that we can't stop here to be bombarded, but we don't know how to do it. Some brave people saw that the position of the cannon was not too far away, so they wanted to rush over, but they stepped on landmines; some timid people wanted to run and hide behind, and then they also stepped on landmines.

Under the chaos, it is obviously impossible to attack, and it is not easy to retreat in an orderly manner. He could only run back in a mess, saving as many lives as possible. Of course, when they were retreating, they didn't care about retreating from the few narrow areas that the British had spent a lot of time marking out. mine action.

"General, the enemy has been knocked down, we only fired a few shots, and the enemy was knocked down, and we have almost no loss, this is really..." An officer of the Northern Army was very excited to stand aside Said Joseph, watching the battle through a telescope.

Speaking of which, quite a few officers in the Northern Army also knew Joseph. After all, the Bonaparte brothers had worked in the Northern Army before, and even rescued many officers. Although the Bonaparte family and the Italian Legion later showed signs of being different from the Northern Legion, the two Bonaparte brothers actually had a good reputation in the Northern Legion.

"Who said we have no losses? We also sacrificed several soldiers just now." Joseph corrected immediately. Then he raised the binoculars again, looked over there, sighed again, shook his head and said, "Also, one of our parapets is ruined, and there is another minefield, which is basically ruined... ...especially some landmines, which were also dug up by them-how can it be said that there is no loss?"

"General, among those landmines, is there any technique that can be recognized at a glance?" the officer asked.

"Of course there are, such as reducing the charge, reducing the volume, and reducing the cost..." Joseph said bitterly.

It took half a day, after destroying a shoddy parapet and efficiently destroying a French minefield, the Anglo-Prussian coalition returned to their starting position.

It was a major setback, no doubt, but it was nothing compared to the other two bad news they got that night.

The first bad news: the Russian Tsar made peace with the French. After a period of stalemate in Italy, the specially authorized Russian consuls in the Republic of Venice and the also specially authorized French consuls reached a peace agreement. pursuant to this agreement. Russia and France made peace. In this agreement, France assured Russia that it would strictly control the export of weapons; and Russia agreed to purchase a batch of weapons from France. At the same time, the two countries also agreed to strengthen cooperation in academic and cultural fields, as well as in other fields.

"Damn the Russians! I knew they were unreliable. If they hadn't cheated us last time, we would have... They cheated us again this time!" The Duke of Brunswick was so angry that he was sweating .

"These Russians! Half a month ago, they just received a sum of money from us!" Major George Cavendish also said angrily, "I have never seen such a brazen person!"

"At such a critical moment, when we were about to take Paris, the Tsar actually betrayed us. I really don't understand how his brain grows. Doesn't he know that we will soon win? The Duke of Brunswick said, "Some people say that he is not the biological son of Peter III. But judging from his behavior, I'm afraid no one will believe this nonsense anymore!"

General Blücher also nodded and said, "That's right, he is that man's son, there is no doubt about it!"

At the most critical moment of the Seven Years' War, Peter III had run out of oil and lamps, and when King Frederick was about to die, he suddenly defected, which led to the defeat of the French side and saved Prussia. Then because of this behavior that completely betrayed Russia's interests, he was overthrown by his wife Yekaterina in a coup. And even the Prussians, who got cheap, admitted that Peter III's defection was completely unreasonable and completely crazy.

"But no matter what, the factor of instability now lies with the French." Major Cavendish looked very open-minded.

And because although his military rank is not high, his status is not low (he has an uncle duke), so everyone is very polite to him.

This news also means that there is no longer any big threat in the south of France, so they must speed up to take Verdun and take Paris before Napoleon arrives. Otherwise, the outcome of this war is really not optimistic.

As for the second bad news, the continuous rainy weather in the south of France has come to an end. There have been two days of fine weather in a row. If this trend continues, the conditions of the roads leading from the south of France to the north will improve rapidly, which means that Napoleon's march speed will become faster. If you don't go to Verdun, it will be even more impossible for the British and Prussians to capture this fortress after Napoleon arrives with the Italian army.

And if the fortress cannot be captured, even in the best of circumstances, the war will continue. And considering the combat effectiveness of the French army, this most ideal state is probably only "the most ideal".

Because of this urgency, after discussing with the Prussian army, the British army decided to launch a strong attack as soon as possible, at any cost, to take Verdun as soon as possible and occupy Paris.

So in the early morning of the next day, not only the Prussians, but even the British sent a large number of troops to enter the starting position from multiple directions, posing a posture of launching a full-scale general offensive immediately.

Joseph was naturally awakened by this posture, and he hurried to the headquarters and began to coordinate the defense of the entire fortress. Soon, the situation observed by the observation posts in all directions was gathered to Joseph.

"Damn it, what are these guys trying to do? Shouldn't it be a tentative attack in various places to learn more about the configuration of the defensive forces on the defensive side, and then launch a targeted and focused attack? What are they doing? Do they understand tactics!" After hearing these reports, Murat immediately said this.

If Napoleon was here, he would definitely laugh and say, "Joachim, you actually talked about tactics?"

But Napoleon was not here, and Joseph, on the surface, was not a bitter man. In addition, he didn't know much about Murat, so he analyzed it seriously:

"I think the enemy probably already knew about Russia's withdrawal from the war and the news that the weather in the south has started to improve. They were worried about Napoleon's...well, they were worried that the Italian Army would appear here soon, so they rushed to attack. As for the test Sexual attack, I guess they are still conducting a tentative attack today, but it is a tentative attack in multiple positions at the same time-they must use this method to save time. Well, according to our previous calculations, they did not Forces required for a general attack from so many directions. It can only be a general trial."

After the explanation, Joseph lowered his head and stared at the map to study it, then raised his head and issued this order: "Well, we must reserve a hand for the rear defense. Note that the artillery is not allowed to use artillery above 12 pounds today. , for other artillery, only single-numbered artillery is allowed to be put into battle, 'shrapnel shells' are not allowed, more than three mines are not allowed to detonate at the same time when using 'broad sword' mines, flamethrowers are not allowed, and 'small melon launchers are not allowed '. Other directions must withstand, No. 1 area, No. 7 area, No. 12 area... You can retreat a little bit, but you can't retreat past the second trench..."

Soon, the British and Prussians attacked from multiple directions. Although as Joseph expected, the attacks in so many directions are basically thunderous and rainy, and the pressure on the defensive side is relatively limited. But because of Joseph's "not allowed", everyone seemed to be playing very lively.

After a day of fighting, the British and Prussians took stock of the results of today's offensive, and found that overall, the offensive efficiency was quite low. However, the opponent also exposed many problems:

First of all, the French army is obviously supported by more new weapons, but because they have lost too many heavy weapons on the northern battlefield, especially lost too many artillery, their number of artillery is obviously insufficient. In addition, the number of their mines does not seem to be particularly sufficient, so the density of minefields in some areas is significantly lower than in others, and the results of demining show that the types of mines in these areas are also more complex, except for the new In addition to "small charge mines", there are also many old-fashioned mines-in the eyes of the British and Prussians, this is a typical manifestation of the insufficient number of mines.

Of course, these problems are likely to improve over time, because there are many military industrial enterprises near Paris, and their production capacity at this time cannot be underestimated. Therefore, if you want to attack, you must do it as soon as possible, otherwise, this fortress will become stronger day by day.

The Duke of Brunswick, General Blücher, and some other British generals carefully studied the places where the defenses were relatively weak. There were two places that should be the most critical, but they appeared to be defensive. Insufficient strength, even weaker than some of the more innocuous places-this is obviously a trap, you must not step into it! Most of the remaining areas are easier to defend in terms of terrain, so it may be true that the strength here is relatively weak.

In the end, they chose two of these places that might be true, and they will be the key targets for the British and Prussian troops to attack tomorrow.