Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Chapter 445: Chapter 359: Division, Interlacing, Decisive Battle!

The French people should be in the direction of Ghent, how come they suddenly emerged from the eastern suburbs of Brussels? Charles II almost snapped his riding whip in frustration, but then he had no choice but to send a regiment to assist the troops that were ambushed, and dispatched a large number of Hussars forward for reconnaissance to prevent the main force from also being ambushed.

After Marson’s surprise attack on the Dutch, he received instructions from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to return north to Antonov. Consequently, he made a detour around the west side of Waterloo and maneuvered to the north of the Dutch.

Since Bronckhorst was so rattled by the previous attack, after leaving the town, he gave the order to maintain a cautious formation and proceed carefully. Marson completed a large loop and began to dispatch Cavalry to scout the position of the Dutch Army, who had barely covered less than 8 kilometers.

To the northwest of Brussels, by a small village over 20 kilometers away from Antonov, the Guard Corps was in the midst of reorganizing.

They had already been on a forced march for two days, covering nearly 60 kilometers. According to the speed of Charles II’s march, it would take about another day and a half to reach here.

In fact, if Joseph truly wanted to launch a strong attack on Antonov, with the city’s defensive troop strength, it was very likely that it would have been occupied by the French Army before the Hanoverian Army arrived.

However, that would amount to helping Austria suppress a rebellion. This was certainly not the outcome he desired.

Inside the central officers’ tent at the Guard Corps camp, Bertier drew the last circle on the map and wrote a line of annotation next to it before putting away his pencil and exhaling deeply.

The intelligence reports from the various Hussar detachments had finally been collated. Joseph, standing beside, looked at the long snake-like formation on the map marked by circles of various sizes and couldn’t help but show a satisfied smile.

"We have at least three positions we can use to perform our interpenetration,” he pointed at a few spots on the map consecutively, “but doing so will also disperse our forces.”

With the means of communication in the 18th century, once the troops were deployed, they were essentially left to their Commanders’ discretion. However, given the current depth of the pool of senior officers in the Guard Corps, Joseph truly couldn’t put his mind at ease.

"Yes, your Highness,” Bertier agreed, nodding and after some thought pointed towards the southeast of Antonov, where Charles II’s main force was located, “There’s a noticeable gap between the Hanoverian artillery and infantry, and about three regiments’ worth of forces are also dispersed to the northeast of Brussels.

"Perhaps… we can cut in between their rear guard and this scattered legion and, at the same time, deploy a strike force to hold back their main force in the northwest direction.

"This way, the distance between our two interpenetrating forces won’t be too great, which is conducive to commanding as well as providing mutual support.”

Joseph looked closely at the enemy positions on the map and nodded in agreement.

Though he himself had modern tactical ideas from the future, when it came to specific combat deployments, it still had to be officers like Bertier—academically trained and immersed in the military for over a decade—who were more professional.

He immediately summoned all the staff officers of the headquarters and the commanding officers at the regimental level. Based on Bertier’s thinking, they quickly formulated a detailed battle plan.

The Guard Corps, which had just rested for half a day, once again began to march rapidly. However, for them, this was nothing unusual—in the police academy, they often trained continuously for a week, and the end-of-year final exercises would even last for half a month, during which period they would engage in this kind of high-intensity marching.

Speed is the essence of encircling and interpenetrating tactics!

So even if another commanding officer on the European Continent systematically learned encircling and interpenetrating tactics, he would be dismayed to find that he simply could not implement them—his troops would not be able to support such high-intensity maneuver warfare due to assembly time, reaction speed, physical strength, and morale.

And if you don’t have a faster movement speed than the enemy, then it’s impossible to disrupt their arrangements and find the opportunity within.

By noon the next day, the Guard Corps had rapidly marched 30 kilometers, arriving at the southeast of Antonov.

At this moment, Charles II was still rushing on his way, preparing to enter Antonov to garrison and fend off the siege by the French Army.

After resting on the spot for two hours, the Guard Corps began their all-out assault on the disorganized Hanoverian Army.

The main force of the army quickly cut in from the northwest, separating the corps that Charles II had sent to reinforce the Dutch from the main force of the Hanoverian Army.

Only then did Charles II realize in alarm that over ten thousand French soldiers had already closed in to less than 6 kilometers from his own position.

And the distance between the front and rear of his troops… exceeded 5 kilometers…

"Damn it! Did these French people sprout from the ground?!”

He wiped the sweat from his brow with the lace on his cuff, striving to calm himself down, and bellowed to a tall officer, “Lieutenant Colonel Schmidt, immediately lead the Dragoons to Ogquenna village to establish a defensive line. Without my order, you are not to retreat a single step!”

"Yes, Marshal!”

Lieutenant Colonel Schmidt turned around, his face souring instantly; how could the Dragoons, not even totaling two regiments, possibly stand against the main force of the French Army in haste? This was clearly a command to use the lives of soldiers to delay the French.

Then, Charles II ordered two infantry regiments to go and meet the baggage train and the cannons in the rear, while the rest of the troops were to immediately regroup with him.

At this moment, he still had about 16,000 soldiers under his command, and as long as they could form up, they would still stand a chance in a fight against the French Army.

Moreover, 6,000 soldiers from the South Netherlands Army in Brussels would be able to come as reinforcements by tomorrow afternoon. By then, a counter-attack on the French Army could even be launched.

However, the situation on the battlefield developed completely differently from what he had envisaged.

In just over an hour, the Guard’s Mounted Artillery, along with the supporting Dragoon Corps, cut through the nearly two-kilometer gap between the main force of the Hanoverian Army and the rear gunners.

Following Napoleon’s suggestion, the artillery battalion quickly set up positions on the hills to the north, while the Dragoon Corps formed an infantry line beside the woods at the foot of the hills.

Meanwhile, the main force of the Guard Corps launched a fierce attack on the 3 separate Hanoverian regiments scattered outside.

Using their absolute superiority in numbers, four infantry regiments up front attacked in column formation, with cavalry flanking from both sides.

An hour earlier, this Hanoverian force had still been on the march and was only informed by an orderly officer sent by Charles II that they were to do battle with the French Army.

The order Charles II had given them was to close in on the main force as much as possible, no longer concerning themselves with the Dutch.

But they had not yet managed to marshal their formation when the columns of the French people appeared in their sight.

The battle unfolded without any suspense—the cavalry of the Guard Corps conducted a feint attack to distract, while the infantry at the front had already charged up to the Hanoverians’ faces.

The columns swiftly deployed into line formation, and before a volley could even be fired, the Hanoverian Army was already thrown into a disorderly retreat by the terrifying momentum.

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