Descending On France 1780
Chapter 177: Captain Bonaparte shows great valor in battle

Chapter 177: Captain Bonaparte shows great valor in battle

Napoleon Bonaparte commanded the Cavalry Guns, advancing alongside the right flank of Laharpu Division when he suddenly noticed the situation atop the Diego heights and stopped to take out his telescope to observe.

Moments later, he laughed heartily: "Hahaha! Andy has used Lime Bombs! He extended the fuse of the lime bombs and used them like landmines!"

He put down the telescope and exclaimed: "I’ve always felt that Lime Bombs were useless garbage, but now it seems that as long as they’re used correctly, there’s no such thing as a useless tool."

At this time, Napoleon’s aide asked: "Should we also bring some Lime Bombs in the future?"

"No, no, those things are useless. Look at the enemy on the mountain, the determined ones directly charged through the spread of lime dust, didn’t they?"

On the slope, the Austrian army was passing through the lime zone. After all, the concentration of quicklime dust wasn’t so high; unless inhaled, at most, it could only burn the eyes.

Lime Bombs, as a weapon that has become very common, all armies have been trained to deal with.

Hold your breath, close your eyes, and pass quickly through the lime area.

After all, the density of lime dust from the exploded Lime Bombs isn’t high, it has weak lethality to humans.

But just because it can’t kill doesn’t mean it can’t disrupt formations. In fact, the Austrian army, after passing through the lime dust, had to stop and reform their ranks and wipe their faces.

This already had a rather good delaying effect.

However, Napoleon clearly wasn’t satisfied with this, he said to his deputy: "What we are after is the complete annihilation of the enemy! Unless the effect of Lime Bombs is good enough to cause the enemy’s skin to burn and fester to necrosis, I will never use Lime Bombs."

Saying that, he turned around to call out to the cavalry behind him: "Advance! Occupy the enemy’s flank positions!"

At this moment, Napoleon was in a very dangerous position – he was on the right flank of the Laharpu Division, which was also the furthest right side of the entire French Army line.

He had his eyes on a protruding part and was prepared to set up artillery there to directly bombard the enemy’s flank.

"This is bayonet warfare with cannons!" Napoleon proudly said, "This was General’s appreciation for me after the last battle! How can we disappoint him! Forward, Artillery!"

**

Laharpe, watching Napoleon’s flanking maneuver, had originally thought Napoleon’s troops were simply reinforcements for his own, so he ordered Napoleon to deploy artillery on the front artillery positions.

Unexpectedly, Napoleon didn’t listen to him at all and directly took the Cavalry Guns to the extreme flank of the formation.

That position was actually very dangerous, not to mention the enemy’s cavalry, if the enemy’s infantry sent a detachment to charge, it could potentially capture Napoleon’s artillery crew.

Laharpe: "Advance the whole army! Squeeze the enemy’s space, don’t let them have the opportunity to threaten our artillery crew! That is General’s favored one, we can’t afford it if anything happens to him!"

In fact, Laharpu Division had the advantage in numbers, pressing forward to bombard the close range could quickly defeat the enemy.

He just didn’t want to leave his current cover.

After all, there was a main road between the two armies, whoever advanced into the open area would be at a disadvantage.

Laharpe liked to use a sure approach to win the inevitable victory, not wishing for too many casualties in his troops.

Who knew that General’s favored ones were all so crazy.

So he could only advance.

**

On Anning’s side, seeing Laharpu pushing past the main road, he excitedly took a big gulp of alcohol: "Good!"

He turned his head to ask Bertier: "If Laharpu divides some of his troops to position across the main road and push towards the high ground, would it cause his troop strength to be insufficient to cope with the enemies in front?"

Bertier: "No problem, Laharpu’s troop should have the advantage, detaching a battalion shouldn’t weaken his frontal advantage."

Anning snapped his fingers: "Good! Then let’s do it!! You draft the orders!"

Bertier immediately began writing vigorously.

At this moment, the lookout shouted loudly: "General! The first line of defense has been breached!"

Anning quickly turned his telescope.

Because he used the cannons to shoot lime bombs on the hillside to delay the enemy’s follow-up troops, the front troops lost the support of the artillery and their breach was only a matter of time.

Similarly, there were several lines of defense on the front, all built upon existing complex terrain such as low walls and hedges.

Many people retreating from the first line of defense stopped at the second line and directly joined in.

So these tiered defensive lines actually got thicker as they were fought, and the enemy needed more troops to penetrate them.

While most of the enemy’s troops were delayed due to the lime clouds on the hillside, after passing it, they had to reorganize, wasting a lot of time.

Anning’s artillery kept bombarding the hill, and the Lime Bombs upon exploding had shrapnel, essentially like exploding shrapnel shells.

It’s just that the fuses needed to burn for a while, giving the Austrians a chance to run away.

Once a shell fell in the midst of the enemy’s formation, you could see these people running away in different directions.

Sometimes, a bold officer would dare to go chop off the fuse with a saber.

Anning watched all this and started to feel a bit anxious.

He originally thought the fog created by the Lime Bombs would completely block the enemy’s follow-up troops, but who knew the concentration of lime was too low.

Thinking about it carefully, a lime bomb can only contain so much lime. When it explodes, the lime becomes extremely diluted.

Moreover, lime bombs are not some new type of weapon; European armies have seen plenty of them.

Damn it, it’s just because I’m a rookie transmigrator. If I were one of those awesome transmigrators who could create anything, I’d definitely make a white phosphorus grenade and show these armies what true terror is.

Anning recalled the World War II movies where American officers, upon seeing German soldiers on fire from white phosphorus bombs, would shout, "Cease fire and let them burn."

Unfortunately, lime is far from phosphorus; it could only serve to delay the enemy.

Anning watched the first line of her defense being breached and saw the female soldiers still maintaining formation and harassing the enemy troops on the flank after the frontline garrison had collapsed.

Lime bombs, female skirmishers, all possible tactics have been used. If all else fails, she would have to draw her sword and lead the remaining Knights in a charge.

Relying on her own frontline, it was unlikely she could win this battle.

Davout!

Anning shifted her gaze to the left flank of the battlefield, watching Davout’s troops unfold along the Bomida River.

Davout’s troops had been maneuvering and deploying, and now they were about to launch their attack!

As long as Davout attacked, everything would start to improve!

While thinking this, the artillerymen in Davout’s division opened fire.

Davout’s opponents were four Austrian brigades positioned on the east bank of the Bomida River.

In terms of troop strength, Davout was at a disadvantage.

But Anning had full trust in Davout.

After all, that was Davout!

If they didn’t win this battle, Anning would have to reconsider her strategy of placing too much trust in the so-called fighting prowess of famous generals.

Anning focused on Davout’s side, using her binoculars to watch his troops begin to advance.

The Austrian troops across the river began to shoot, with white smoke even obscuring the glimmer of the Bomida River.

At that moment, Bertier suddenly reminded Anning, "General! Quick, look at the right flank!"

Anning hurriedly turned her head; she thought that Laharpu’s forces had collapsed, but when she looked, she saw the brigade on the farthest right of the enemy line—the farthest left from the enemy’s perspective—beginning to crumble!

Anning: "What the hell?"

She quickly raised her binoculars to see what was happening and saw Napoleon himself ignite a cavalry gun, which fired a volley of shotgun pellets sweeping across the enemy’s formation like the wind of death.

Seeing this, Anning’s reaction was utter disbelief, like one of those astounded expressions on an old man’s face in the subway: What the hell? I was only half-joking when I said that Napoleon’s tactic during the fight with Lafayette was like mounting a bayonet on a cannon, and now he’s actually fired up about it?

Napoleon, turned into a man who charges with cannons?

**

"Hurry and reload!" Napoleon looked exceedingly pleased, "Quick! Fire another round before the infantry blocks our line of fire!"

While the artillerymen were desperately reloading, he turned to his subordinate and said, "See that? The power of the cannon lies in its canister shots. If your canister hasn’t broken the enemy’s formation, it means you’re not close enough! The essence of mobile artillery is to get close enough to unleash the full power of canister shots in concentrated volleys!"

His subordinate was about to respond but got shot in the ear.

Crying out in pain, he fell to the ground.

Napoleon didn’t care and gestured grandly, "Carry him off! Clean his ear with alcohol! Keep reloading!"

A small group of Austrian soldiers led by a Sergeant screamed and charged towards Napoleon’s artillery unit that was isolated from the rest of the front.

Napoleon personally adjusted the cannon’s aim toward these Austrians and then fired the touchhole.

There was a loud bang, and the brave group of Austrian soldiers all fell.

Napoleon: "Quickly reload!"

At this moment, Laharpu Division’s infantry, howling wildly, charged forward.

Napoleon swore: "Dammit! Clear the firing line! Assholes! I can still inflict more casualties!"

But no one listened to him. The soldiers, driven by adrenaline during the charge, were deaf to anything else.

Cursing, Napoleon stepped aside from the cannon and found a higher ground to stand on to observe the battlefield.

Then he immediately spotted another area where he could continue to contribute.

"Quick! Put the gun carriages away! We’ll go support the center! It looks like the center could use a flanking fire support as well! Hurry!"

A Sergeant reported: "Some horses died, we can’t pull that many cannons anymore!"

Napoleon: "Dammit, it’s always such a mess with horses! Leave behind one cannon, we’ll retrieve it after the fight! Use the remaining horses to pull the rest of the gun carriages; move quickly, the essence of war is speed!"

With that, the diminutive Captain mounted his horse, then shouted: "Messenger Soldier!"

A Messenger Soldier came up: "Captain!"

"Go, tell Laharpu that I’m moving to support the main battlefront now; he’s got to hold here!"