Descending On France 1780
Chapter 239: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II

Chapter 239: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II

The next morning, Anning assembled his troops for the campaign.

The citizens of Paris, having learned of today’s departure, flocked to the outskirts to bid farewell.

Watching the scene unfold, Anning was inexplicably reminded of the "Song of ****," not the one about "We are the sea of flowers in May," but the one with "Listen to the alarm of the battle horns."

Anning couldn’t help but hum softly to himself.

He saw an old woman tearfully holding onto a young man’s hand, and just then, the lyrics reached "Goodbye, Mother, do not grieve or be sad, bless us with safety on our journey."

He also saw many young girls sharing final kisses with their lovers.

Observing this, Anning said to Bertier beside him, "Look, Chief of Staff, our army and the citizens of Paris are in complete harmony. An army like this has a formidable combat strength."

Bertier replied, "I still trust in ample training, General."

Anning: "Well, there’s nothing we can do about that. The enemy has come so quickly. The lack of training will have to be compensated by high morale."

At that moment, Anning suddenly noticed a drummer in the marching column looking in his direction.

He recognized him as Beethoven.

Damn it, making a great composer play the drums, surely something’s not right here?

Beethoven was winking and making faces at Anning, seeming to be in a good mood.

Anning thought to himself not to be too cocky, lest you get grazed by a stray bullet on the battlefield. I don’t want to lose a great composer for nothing. I can’t bear that responsibility.

So he turned his head to ask Bertier, "Do you remember which unit Ludwig is in?"

"Of course I remember," Bertier gestured to his head, "I keep all important information in mind."

"That’s good," Anning nodded.

**

At this time, in Sedan.

The Prussian-Austrian coalition resumed their siege on the fortress after their entrenchment efforts progressed to a certain point.

They tried to scale the fortress’s walls with ladders, but were met with a barrage of gunfire from the French Army stationed above.

Napoleon watched all this with a furrowed brow: "Damn those Prussians, planning to pile up bodies in the ditch to cause an outbreak of plague."

Napoleon’s Chief of Staff said skeptically, "Isn’t this a waste of troops? How can they so easily sacrifice their soldiers?"

"That’s typical of the nobility," Napoleon said, apparently forgetting he himself was a noble, "Civilians are just numbers to them, no matter how many are sacrificed, there’s no need for grief."

As he spoke, he turned his binoculars to look at the other side of the fortress, where according to the Austrian defector in the fortress, was under the command of Carl, the Grand Duke of Austria.

"On the contrary, this Grand Duke Carl commands with order and doesn’t recklessly expend his troops. His leadership looks like that of a true noble."

The Chief of Staff couldn’t resist retorting, "A true noble? He’s the brother of the Emperor of Austria, with a rank even higher than that of the Prussian commanders."

Napoleon said, "I’m talking about a ’true’ noble, the emphasis is on the words ’true.’ The Prussian commander seems like a mediocrity, just a waste riding on the coattails of his ancestors. As for Grand Duke Carl, he appears to be genuinely competent.

"So we should focus our main efforts on the side facing Grand Duke Carl."

As Napoleon finished speaking, he saw carts filled with dirt moving amongst the Austrian army formations commanded by Grand Duke Carl.

Napoleon asked, "Carts? What’s he trying to do?"

No sooner had the words been spoken than the Austrian soldiers began pushing carts filled with earth into the ditch. Cart after cart, a large mound of soil soon appeared in the trench.

Napoleon: "My God, he’s planning to fill the trench with earth."

Sedan Fortress, though strongly fortified, was not without its weaknesses.

The relatively narrow ditch was one of Sedan’s vulnerabilities.

If part of the ditch could be filled, the Austrian Army could then assault the fortress walls directly.

The walls of the fortress were not very high because the walls of modern fortresses were built short and stout to withstand cannon fire.

Such walls, combined with a ditch, could still be considered an impregnable barrier.

However, once the ditch was filled, it would be equivalent to having the fortress walls shortened.

Napoleon, of course, was well aware of this. Having begun his career in the artillery, he had learned military engineering in school.

Thus, he was very familiar with the construction of fortresses.

Napoleon: "The barrage on the left is too thin, what are the gunners doing?"

"Stop the Austrians from dumping soil into the trench!"

With that, Napoleon ran along the fortress wall, quickly reaching the point directly opposite where the Austrians were filling in the soil and personally adjusted the cannon to aim, then shouted orders at the soldiers: "Load! Hurry up, you swine!"

After the cannon was loaded, Napoleon snatched the torch and ignited the cannon himself.

With a thunderous roar, Napoleon didn’t bother to watch where the shot fell – at this time, accuracy in cannon fire wasn’t necessary, as impact points were anyway random.

"Reload quickly!" Napoleon shouted again in haste.

Napoleon’s actions at this gun position also affected the surrounding ones, with everyone vigorously reloading and continuously launching cannonballs toward the Austrian soil work area.

In the midst of battle, Napoleon suddenly saw the Austrian command flag approaching, a slim Austrian general mounted on a sorrel horse, observing the French position through his binoculars.

Napoleon also handed the torch to an artilleryman next to him and picked up his binoculars to observe the Austrian general.

He saw that the general wore a white military dress adorned with a large cross medal that was clearly visible even from afar, and he also wore a red-white-red sash, indicating his royal status.

Napoleon: "He looks quite frail, hardly the image of a fierce warrior."

**

Grand Duke Carl, through his binoculars, also observed Napoleon.

"The uniform is quite informal, short in stature yet full of energy, is this the favored man under Frost?" he muttered to himself.

One of the noble officers nearby said: "It is said that he comes from Corsica, that barren backwater where no birds sing. Though unimposing in appearance, he’s somehow still a noble. It’s puzzling how he got mixed up with the common-born Frost."

Another scoffed, "Perhaps by licking boots..."

The nobles laughed rudely, devoid of any elegance.

Grand Duke Carl frowned slightly.

Those with insight in the Austrian army particularly despised these useless dandies in the ranks.

Grand Duke Carl was one of them, although he was the biggest dandy of them all.

Ignoring the jests of those around him, Grand Duke Carl studied Napoleon carefully.

That year, Napoleon was 24, Grand Duke Carl was 22; both were at an age where the future held more than the past.