Descending On France 1780
Chapter 147 - 140 Just a small trick

Chapter 147: 140 Just a small trick

Anning looked at the numerous enemy forces below the hill and stroked his chin, pondering over countermeasures.

Suddenly, he asked Davout, "Do your troops have alcohol?"

Davout replied, "My troops are not ragtag soldiers; they don’t have camp followers lugging alcohol around."

Anning clicked his tongue, then turned to Napoleon and said, "Your artillery unit brought the powder wagons, right?"

Napoleon, looking puzzled, answered, "Yes, we have. What about it?"

Anning slapped his thigh, "Get several powder wagons and put them in the granaries and the mill!"

Napoleon nodded, "That’s easy. I’ll allocate a few powder wagons right away."

Davout asked, "You’re planning to abandon the hilltop?"

Anning replied, "Correct. The purpose of holding this position was to make the enemy stop here and fight us. Now that objective has been achieved. We’ll throw powder into the mill and granaries, and when the enemy approaches, we’ll ignite it with lime bombs—BOOM!"

Napoleon interjected, "We have specialized incendiary bombs; those ignite faster."

Anning agreed, "Well said! I’ll leave the igniting to you! And the powder, hurry and bring it over!"

Napoleon saluted Anning, "Understood!"

He then turned his horse and galloped away.

Shortly after, the powder-laden carts were brought over, hidden inside the granaries and the mill, while the coachmen rode the horses away.

Anning instructed, "Davout, let’s retreat! Sing the Marseillaise during the retreat; you are victors, show it!"

Davout saluted, "Leave it to me!"

He then turned and issued orders to his troops.

Consequently, the First Brigade swiftly left their original defensive positions, forming neat columns of four along the main road.

The military flag led the way, to the beat of the military band’s drums, followed closely by the main force.

Davout walked alongside the troops, like a regular officer, as he began to sing, "Arise, children of the Fatherland! The day of glory has arrived!

"Against us tyranny’s bloody banner is raised,

"Do you hear, in the countryside, the roar of those ferocious soldiers?

"They’re coming right into our arms to cut the throats of our sons and our women!

"Arm yourselves, citizens! Form your battalions!

"March, march!

"Let impure blood water our furrows!"

Anning watched as the First Brigade retreated, singing the battle hymn. Davout would lead them to the rear of the four brigades currently deployed, as the overall reserve of the entire battle.

Now, only Napoleon’s cavalry artillery unit remained on the hilltop. Although they had given up a few wagons of powder, they were still fiercely shooting, unaffected.

Napoleon rode up to Anning and said, "You should head down. I will command the cavalry artillery; rest assured."

Anning looked at the infantry guns abandoned by Davout’s troops and said, "Assign a few men to operate these infantry guns. When the enemy approaches, ride away on horses."

"Understood, I’ll handle it personally."

Napoleon said this and rode off again, returning moments later with a few artillerymen on horseback.

They dismounted beside the infantry guns and began loading.

Napoleon took aim himself and then lit the fuse.

The cannon roared.

Listening to the cannon fire right beside his ear, Anning observed the impact with his telescope. He saw the infantry gun’s shells land in the shrubbery below the hill, snapping a bush.

Anning then observed Lafayette’s formation; he noticed that the mounted officers were rallying the scattered troops with impressive efficiency, deploying on both flanks of Lafayette’s main force.

Anning cursed to himself.

He too wished for such an efficient and experienced officer corps.

Alas, the officers in his own army were promoted from the common folk and weren’t yet so capable; once the troops were scattered, they had no chance of rallying.

Anning felt once more the immense challenge of the battle he faced.

However, he had already repelled the enemy’s first attack, and aside from Davout’s First Brigade, his side had suffered almost no losses.

The eight thousand men lying in ambush on the reverse slope were almost at full strength.

With such a small loss to defeat an enemy force of twenty thousand, it was already a resounding victory.

But Anning couldn’t just win this one battle; he had to win both, otherwise everything just won would have to be given back.

At this moment, bugle calls came from the foot of the mountain.

Then, the enemy troops at the mountain’s base began to move forward.

**

Lafayette: "All troops attack! No matter what tricks the enemy is hiding, as long as we have enough force, we can crush them! Advance!"

Bertier immediately whispered a few words to the bugler, and soon after, the buglers played the tune to advance the whole army.

The division’s military band immediately started to play, and the recently regrouped troops of the first division began to advance in step with the drumbeat.

The recently rallied routed soldiers, on both wings of the first division, were a step late before they also moved forward.

The cannonballs from the mountaintop fell around the advancing columns, but these were of smaller calibers; even when hitting the troops, they could only knock down a few men.

Only the few cannons under the beech tree in the center, the twelve-pounder heavy artillery, their cannonballs grazed through the formation and could take away seven or eight men.

However, that was also the maximum damage that solid bullets could cause at this distance.

Veteran troops naturally wouldn’t waver over this level of casualties.

However, the entire first division hadn’t slept much the night before; they now all felt utterly exhausted.

For a moment, Lafayette also doubted whether he could win with such a weary division.

But he quickly dismissed this thought: he must win today; he had more than three times the enemy’s troop strength. If he couldn’t win with that, then the name of the hero of the independence war would be ruined.

If this battle were lost, all of France would no longer recognize him as a hero, and Andy Frost, that leatherworker, would become the most outstanding military strategist in all of France!

This was utterly unacceptable!

Lafayette must win today!

**

Anning, observing the effects of the artillery fire from atop the mountain, suddenly noticed something and asked Napoleon, who was personally operating the cannon, "What about your lime bombs? Why haven’t I seen you using them?"

Napoleon: "The accuracy of those bombs is too poor; they often explode in mid-air and then scatter over an empty area where there are no people at all. I trust solid bullets more than lime bombs."

Anning curled his lip. In this era, the accuracy of the artillery was already poor, and things like lime bombs and fragmentation bombs had to be ignited before firing, and when they explode was entirely unpredictable, thus resulting in even poorer accuracy.

No wonder Napoleon didn’t trust these things.

Actually, for solid bullet ricochets, when facing squads of enemies advancing in formation, the accuracy was quite reasonable.

Not until the use of percussion fuzes in artillery shells did fragmentation bombs and lime bombs achieve more satisfactory accuracy.

Anning remembered that in "Total War Empire," this was already very advanced artillery technology.

Anning pondered that he should find a scientist to light the fire for artillery technology.

—Wait, I remember that Lavoisier, the father of chemistry, is still alive right now.

While Anning was thinking of these things, Lazar Kano galloped up: "Your Excellency! Please get down! The enemy is attacking again; this place is too dangerous! We need you in command at headquarters!"

Anning was just about to respond when an enemy cannonball hit the parapet a few meters from him, striking directly onto a wicker basket filled with rocks, causing the wicker to break apart and sending stones flying out, injuring several artillerymen.

A stone also hit Anning on the forehead, but due to his unique constitution, the stone made a "Duang" sound upon impact.

Still, blood had to flow, and a stream of blood immediately covered half of Anning’s eyes, turning his entire field of vision red.

Lazar Kano, greatly alarmed, exclaimed: "Are you alright?"

Anning was extremely calm: "It’s nothing, just a minor injury."

He wiped the blood from his face and took out a handkerchief to press against the wound.

Napoleon: "You should get down quickly; it’s too dangerous here, at least retreat to beyond the threat of enemy guns."

Anning: "Don’t make a fuss, continue firing!"

Napoleon did so.

A few artillerymen looked at each other, obviously impressed by Anning’s courage, even those who had just been injured by the flying stones struggled to get up and continued to operate the artillery.

Lazar Kano: "Please go down! You can’t be of any assistance here!"

It was then that Anning shoved the bloodied handkerchief back into his pocket and said to Napoleon, "I leave everything to you. Remember, when the enemy climbs up the hill, use incendiary bombs to ignite the barns and the mill!"

Napoleon: "Don’t worry, I will personally operate the gun!"

Anning nodded, then raised his hand to give a whip to his horse’s behind and ran toward his command position on the backside of the slope.