Descending On France 1780
Chapter 244 - 237 From today onwards, this is my motto.

Chapter 244: 237 From today onwards, this is my motto.

Anning has always been keeping an eye on the performance of the sharpshooter company.

He excitedly said to the people around him, "Look! Such killing efficiency at such a great distance! If we can equip these widely and handle the prefabricated ammunition, the shape of wars would change entirely!"

While saying this excitedly, Anning turned his head to look aside, only to see Bertier’s serious face.

He pouted, then remembered that the person who could share his joy was not by his side — Bertier always kept things professional, not joining in his excitement like his buddies would.

It could be said that the Chief of Staff always maintained a proper distance, always carrying an utterly respectful attitude.

While this attitude wasn’t wrong, it indeed made things a bit dull.

Anning poured himself another, continuing to watch the sharpshooter company, on which he had high hopes, "frag" the coalition’s sappers, and meanwhile pondered how to improve rear-loading rifles in the future.

Firstly, the primers and prefabricated ammunition needed to be developed.

Unfortunately, Anning studied computer science, and his knowledge of chemistry was only up to the level required for university entrance exams; manually making primers was unrealistic.

However, Anning knew whom to ask for this. Mr. Equality, now his future father-in-law, and Mr. Equality’s dependents were tantamount to his own.

Mr. Equality had funded the great chemist Lavoisier.

In real history, Lavoisier got involved in politics and tax issues of Paris, ultimately getting sent to the guillotine.

Anning recalled this happened in 1794, which means there was still a year left.

It was still entirely possible to save Lavoisier now.

As he pondered these things, Bertier suddenly shouted, "General!"

Anning snapped back from his distraction to reality on the battlefield and saw coalition soldiers using pontoon bridge planks as shields, forcefully rushing towards the riverbank.

"Have the sharpshooters retreat!" Anning ordered loudly.

But it was already too late, the first wave of coalition troops reached the shore, charging at the sharpshooters with bayonets fixed.

The sharpshooters were in scattered formation then, maintaining considerable distance between each man, which meant they could be locally outnumbered by the enemy’s charging formation, potentially giving the enemy a local numerical advantage.

Soon, a few sharpshooters were put down, and their copper-plated rear-loading rifles were snatched.

The Self-Defense Army soldiers backing up the sharpshooters immediately flipped over the low wall, rushing the small enemy groups crossing the river in a dense formation.

The enemies were quickly bayonetted, with several of the stolen rifles reclaimed.

However, some coalition soldiers ran very fast, clutching their gleaming rifles and rushing back into the water.

The Self-Defense Army soldiers at the riverbank immediately opened fire densely into the water.

But in that instant, a solid bullet hit the sandy beach in front of them; because it was a beach, it didn’t bounce but rather became a literal rolling orb.

The rolling cannonball instantly broke the legs of several men.

The horrible wailing was so intense that even Anning could hear it from his position.

Anning furrowed his brows, just about to say something when Bertier suggested, "The soldiers should also throw the pontoon bridge components that have been pushed to the shore into the river."

"Alright, go give the order," Anning nodded.

**

Prince Schwarzenberg looked at the rifle brought back by the suicide squad who had just crossed the river.

"Rear-loading? No wonder it fires so fast." As he said this, he stood the rifle up to look inside the barrel, "It even has rifling... How did they solve the issue of gunpowder residue clogging the rifling?"

As Prince Schwarzenberg spoke, he handed the rifle to the Chief of Staff.

The Chief of Staff fiddled with the mechanical structure at the breech: "The locking seems fine, but indeed, it’s not clear how they handled the problem of the rifling capturing gunpowder residue."

Prince Schwarzenberg said, "This kind of weapon needs to be washed with water intermittently to flush out the gunpowder residues from the narrow riflings. In my view, this weapon is far from ready for actual combat. That Leatherworker actually dared to use such a thing.

"Okay, let’s end the discussion about Frost’s new gun here."

Saying this, Prince Schwarzenberg turned to the soldier who had brought back the gun: "You swam over, how was it, could your feet reach the riverbed?"

The soldier nodded in response: "They could, the river isn’t particularly deep, apart from the people in the middle row, most should be able to wade across the river."

The current infantry attack formation generally uses three rows in a horizontal formation; the arrangement rule of this formation is the tallest people are in the front row, the second tallest in the third row, sandwiching the shortest in the middle second row.

The main reason for this arrangement is because Prussia’s infantry manual stipulates it so.

After the defeat in the Seven Years’ War, all participating parties essentially copied the Prussian regulations verbatim.

The French didn’t dare alter the Prussians’ regulations, fearing that even changing one word could render the regulations ineffective, unable to unleash the might of the era of Emperor Frederick.

The Austrians weren’t to be outdone either, thus the Austrian army also had the shorter soldiers sandwiched by taller ones like sandwich cookies.

Prussian traditions were copied wholesale, and nobody even asked "Why do this sandwich cookie model?"

Now even if someone wanted to ask, Emperor Frederick who was responsible for drafting the regulations had long since passed away. Unless one had the means to communicate with spirits, it would be impossible to get an answer.

Prince Schwarzenberg ordered the Chief of Staff: "Take the tallest soldiers from the first row as the vanguard, immediately enter the river, and charge across to the ragtag forces on the opposite side!"

He paused, then added: "Let the engineers under the cover of the assault troops quickly complete the pontoon bridge!"

**

Anning saw the coalition starting to cross the river.

"Damn, was it that assault just now that let the commander on the other side know the river is actually not that deep?"

Anning muttered.

The upper stream of the Marne River is not suitable for navigation, shallow and with rapid currents.

Theoretically, if one can find a shallow spot, there’s a fair chance to successfully force a crossing.

Clearly, the enemy’s recent assault against the sharpshooters convinced Prince Schwarzenberg that he had found the shallow he needed.

So he attacked without hesitation.

Anning, watching the soldiers beginning to descend like dumplings on the opposite bank, said to Bertier: "Pass my orders to the whole army, the real test has arrived. France may be vast, but we have no retreat, Paris is right behind us!"

Bertier: "France may be vast, but we have no retreat... You truly are a genius in speech and boosting morale."

No no, that’s not my original creation, I copied it...

Never mind, whatever, since I’ve copied it, from today on, this quote is mine.