Descending On France 1780
Chapter 100 - 094 Self-Defense Army, advance!

Chapter 100: 094 Self-Defense Army, advance!

Anning sat on his horse beside his own formation.

At this moment, he felt a bit like he was playing "Mount and Blade."

In "Mount and Blade 2," riding a horse in front of one’s own formation was pretty much the same feeling.

However, in the Mount and Blade series, there was no such prop as a monocular telescope.

Anning, holding a monocular telescope, carefully observed a chaotic enemy.

It seemed that being suddenly bombarded during the column march threw the enemy into disarray.

One should say that the enemy’s officers were quite capable; even in such a state, they managed to barely deploy into a line formation.

It’s just a pity that the Rebel Army’s foundation was too weak, causing their troops to be in a strange state: Rebels close to the rebel leader had already left the main road and formed lines, but those far from the leader were still in column formation.

If the rebel leader rode a horse, running back and forth in front of the troops, kicking the backsides of the slow-moving Rebel soldiers, he could probably get the troops to change into line formation.

Unfortunately, that bearded rebel leader didn’t ride a horse.

Clearly, the carriage he was in had horses. He could have just taken a horse from the carriage and ridden it.

But the bearded leader chose to stand on the carriage and give orders.

He might not know how to ride a horse.

At this time, Christina suggested, "The enemy is in chaos; if we use Cavalry to charge now, we could probably end the battle."

Anning: "You only have two hundred Cavalry; do you think you can break through three thousand with just that wishful thinking?"

Christina pursed her lips: "Morale collapse has nothing to do with numbers..."

"No, I’m choosing a more secure method. Don’t worry; you’ll get to charge, but not now."

With that, Anning gently kicked his horse’s belly, making it trot. He turned the horse around, letting it trot past the front of the infantry line, running to the end and then back again, finally stopping in the middle of the troops.

When he first ran past, Anning thought he would hear cheers, but there were none; the infantrymen just looked at him strangely.

The reason Anning had this illusion was because he remembered a scene from the movie Napoleon; Napoleon rides past the infantry, and they all become spirited, cheering thunderously.

It turns out that special treatment was reserved for Napoleon.

Anning: "You’ve seen it! The enemy encountered artillery fire and fell into chaos! Now is the perfect opportunity to attack! Don’t be scared just because the enemy looks numerous; they are merely a disorderly mob, and no match for us! I bet they can’t withstand a single volley from us!"

Having said that, Anning drew out his sword and waved it forward: "All troops, advance!"

Right at this moment, the Artillery fired a new round.

The military band was the first to respond, striking up a tight drumbeat.

Then officers shouted loudly: "Everyone, advance!"

The orders of the officers were relayed from one to another, echoing, passing all the way to the other end of the orchard.

The blue lines wavered for a moment, then surged forward like a giant wave.

Anning rode his horse aside, making way for the troops.

He moved to the side, and Christina approached: "You won’t let me attack, but you make the troops advance? Is that appropriate with the Self-Defense Army’s level of training?"

Anning pointed towards the distant enemy line: "Look at the enemy’s situation; their morale is about to collapse at the first volley."

As soon as he said that, a cannonball fell right in front of the enemy line, throwing up a large handful of dirt, and immediately, many enemies fell.

From this distance, Anning couldn’t see the cannonball’s bounce, only the enemy tumbling down in disarray.

Anning: "See! In a little while, the Artillery will have them scattered."

Christina: "Hmm... indeed..."

Just then, Anning saw his own infantry turn their original line into a ’convex’ formation; a group in the middle ran fast, leaving behind people on both sides.

Anning couldn’t help but hold his forehead: "I knew they couldn’t keep their lines straight."

Christina teased: "Better let my girls charge; at least we can keep our formation neat."

Anning: "Forget it; it’s enough to deal with a disorderly mob."

Having said that, Anning closed his mouth, watching his troops approach the enemy with an increasingly ugly formation.

At this time, the enemy was even more chaotic; the bearded leader ran back and forth along the troops, fiercely kicking the Rebel soldiers, trying to get them to form lines.

As Anning’s troops reached halfway to their destination, the Rebel Army could not hold back any longer and began to shoot.

Christina: "Firing at this distance, and not even in volleys, there’s no way anything could be hit."

No sooner had she spoken than more of the Rebel Army took up firing, and Anning could imagine, if they had officers, they would have been swearing while trying to stop their soldiers from shooting.

The white smoke from the firing started to obscure the Rebel Army’s line, and with the smoke created by the Artillery’s gunfire, the entire battlefield became shrouded in a mist, greatly reducing visibility.

Anning could barely see that his troops had advanced to within fifty yards of the Rebel Army.

Anning: "Why don’t they stop to shoot?"

Christina: "You... are you sure you appointed a commander for the assault? The commander has to give the order."

Anning slapped his forehead hard: "Damn, I didn’t appoint one."

In view, the blue line, formed in a convex shape, thus pressed on toward the enemy.

Anning cursed to himself, then told Christina: "It’s too late to give orders now, we’ll have to switch tactics, Cavalry follow me."

With that, Anning kicked his horse’s belly, urging it to a gallop, raising his long saber high as he charged towards the enemy formation.

Seeing this, Christina also drew her saber: "Ladies, follow!"

Clarice: "Let’s stick close to the Noble Killer! Charge!"

Two hundred Cavalry followed behind Anning, charging out of the apple orchard and towards the black-clad army still in disarray!

The rumbling of the horses’ hooves was like thunder!

**

At this moment, Lieutenant Russell was leading his troops forward towards the enemy.

He looked at the distance to the enemy and couldn’t help murmuring: "Shouldn’t we stop and shoot now?"

Lieutenant Russell, not realizing he was now the highest-ranking officer in the infantry attack group, had no intention of ordering his troops to halt and fire.

Even though he did feel that they should stop and open fire.

Suddenly, he heard a thunderous rumble of hoofbeats from behind.

Turning his head, he just saw Anning leading a ferocious charge with the Cavalry girls from the side of the formation.

Russell’s blood heated up, and he bellowed: "The boss is charging! We’re going too! All units, bayonet charge!"

Hearing him, the band at his side immediately started playing a rousing drumbeat.

The officers also shouted along with Russell: "Charge! Kill!"

Then, spurred by adrenaline, the soldiers also began to shout: "Kill!"

"For freedom!"

Over a thousand men, with bayonets fixed, charged at the black-clad army already in chaos.

**

By this time, the black-clad Rebel Army, due to the smoke from the shooting, could not see the enemy that had already approached them.

Under such circumstances, the terrifying war cries from the other side of the smoke were extraordinarily frightening.

And then something even more terrifying happened: the blue-coated army, bearing bayonets with ferocious expressions, surged through the smoke, literally like ghosts.

The morale of the black-clad army collapsed at that moment.

At first, it was only a few men who retreated in fear, but then the entire line began to scatter like rats deserting a sinking ship, as though fear was contagious.

Henry roared: "Don’t run! Fight! We outnumber them!"

Just then, the Cavalry appeared on the flank of the black-clad army.

And so retreat turned to rout, and soon everyone began to run for it, no matter that Henry killed a few men in frustration.

Henry: "Damn it! They’re just a bunch of greenhorns who can’t even march in a straight line!"

But by then, the blue-clad Self-Defense Army had already charged up in front of Henry.

Henry: "I am a warrior blessed by God... fuck!"

The cold bayonet plunged into his stomach.

"Damn it!" Henry was about to speak when several more bayonets stabbed into his belly.