Fox of France

Chapter 189 , Iron Wall

When the Russian army was out of range of the French army's Mini rifles, they quickly transformed their horizontal line into a column and quickly approached the French position. Napoleon also opened his eyes wide: "This...isn't this our trick?"

"General, over the years, not too many people have imitated our fighting methods." Suchet raised his chin high, "But no matter how they imitate, they are still our defeat."

"Hahaha..." Napoleon laughed, "Louis, do you know? Someone said something very similar to what you just said."

"Who?" Xu Xie asked.

"My brother Joseph—the guy who insists on wearing the coat of arms of the Academy of Sciences on his chest whenever I'm in uniform in front of him—well, we had a picnic together. And he didn't mean the military, he said The most important ones are the products of the 'military-industrial complex'," Napoleon said, and a picture of Joseph with a big badge of academician of the Academy of Sciences hanging on his chest appeared in his mind, "he said:' We've been imitated, but never surpassed.' But really, just this change of formation where they're out of range of our rifles, really surpassed what we've been up to."

Xuxie laughed after hearing this. It is indeed not difficult to surpass the French army in this respect, especially when the French army is still widely using column assault tactics. Because at that time, the main reason why the French army adopted this tactic was that the soldiers were not trained enough to form a neat line?

But now the army in front of them, at a farther distance, approached in a thin horizontal line in order to avoid being hit by solid shells (so that even if they were hit, they would kill one or two people), and when they were close to the rifle range In addition, it can quickly change a horizontal line into a column. This ability to change formation itself shows that the training of this army is quite good.

After the Russian army completed the change of formation, they continued to move forward. And the cannons on the French side also began to fire at these Russian troops.

A shell accurately hit a Russian phalanx, like a bowling ball hitting a row of wooden pins. Crackling knocked a large row of Russian soldiers to the ground. However, unlike bowling balls, the wooden pins knocked down by bowling balls are at least intact, but the soldiers knocked down by iron balls fired from cannons are not so complete, especially the first few, almost all of them were knocked down by the bowling balls. It was torn apart.

But the Russian troops who followed Suvorov to Italy were all veterans who were used to life and death on the battlefields with Turkey and Poland. Therefore, the pace of the Russian army's advancement was not affected more. They were still approaching the French army at a constant speed, and soon they entered the minefield of the French army.

The mine exploded soon, and with the explosion of the mine, each Russian soldier fell down clutching his feet, but this still couldn't stop the Russian army from moving forward. Soon the barbed wire fence appeared in front of them.

Several soldiers with explosive packs quickly came out of the queue and rushed towards the barbed wire.

"Bang bang bang..." A row of gunpowder smoke rose from the trenches of the French army. Many soldiers holding explosives were knocked down, but some people rushed to the barbed wire and stuffed the explosives on the wire. below.

Following several explosions, the barbed wire fence was immediately blasted into several gaps. Almost at the same time, the Russian army formed a formation, bayonets straightened, and rushed towards these gaps.

"How brave!" exclaimed Napoleon.

"It is indeed no less brave than our army!" Xuxie also sighed, "Unfortunately, the braver you are, the faster you die."

Just as the Russian army rushed to the gap in the barbed wire, a whole row of broadsword landmines exploded not far from the barbed wire. Each broadsword shot 800 iron balls at the Russian army on the opposite side. The simultaneous detonation of so many broadswords was like a torrential rain at the front, or like a sudden hailstorm in summer. Crackling and smashing into the wheat field, the whole piece of wheat fell to the ground.

Looking around, almost all the soldiers of the Russian army rushing to the front were knocked down to the ground. Just one round of explosion caused thousands of casualties to the Russian army.

"I didn't expect this thing to be so ferocious!" Farther away, Marshal Suvonov put down the binoculars in his hand and sighed, "When the British talked about the power of this thing, I thought they had something It's an exaggeration, I didn't expect..."

"The science and technology of the French is indeed the best in Europe." Bagration also sighed, "However, this alone cannot stop us."

Indeed, this round of blows was very heavy, but it was just like throwing a big stone into the rushing tide. The big rock made a huge splash and made a loud noise, but was then submerged by the tide coming from behind.

More Russian soldiers jumped over the corpses that fell on the ground and rushed through the first barbed wire fence. In front of them was the first trench of the French army.

"Bang bang bang..." The French army in the trench fired a final salvo at the Russians, then turned around and retreated along the longitudinal communication trench to the second trench behind. At the same time, in front of the first trench, another row of "broad swords" was detonated.

This row of "broad swords" also failed to stop Russia, but it also blocked the footsteps of the Russian army a little bit, providing time for the retreat of the French army in the trenches.

The French army in the first trench followed the traffic trench and quickly turned to the second trench behind. The Russian army quickly rushed to the first trench.

"Go up, go up!" Bagration exclaimed excitedly.

"Peter, it's still early." Suvorov frowned, "Why didn't there be a battle here? If this line of defense is relatively important, why didn't they resist when we rushed to the first trench? "

"Then are they planning?" Bagration asked.

"They plan to let us continue to consume strength in front of the next line of defense, and then counterattack when our army is exhausted." Suvorov said, "Immediately give orders to the front, so that if they encounter obstacles in the front, Just retreat and consolidate the occupation of the first line of defense today. In addition, let the follow-up troops enter, and the French may counterattack. We can only rely on them to block them."

The cavalry who sent the order rushed forward immediately. At this time, the Russian army that rushed up took advantage of the opportunity of the French army to retreat, and rushed towards the second trench.

From the first trench to the second trench, there is a distance of several hundred meters in the middle, and there is a barbed wire fence between the two trenches. And there seems to be a shortcut that can be used between the two trenches-the traffic trench that vertically connects the two trenches. It was here that the French army retreated just now. Chasing from here seems to be able to pass under the barbed wire.

So some soldiers chased directly from the French traffic trenches. The chase seemed to be going smoothly at first, but when they were about to rush to the second trench, at the exit of the communication trench, a French soldier stretched out his hand and pulled a piece of yellow cloth, revealing a cannon The mouth is facing the 8-pound gun in the traffic trench. Then the muzzle flashed, and a big 8-pound iron ball hit.

The traffic trench is not too wide, and there are not many places to hide. Of course, although the flying speed of the cannonballs of that era was considerably slower than that of the cannons of later generations, it was not something humans could dodge with their own reactions. So the shells hit the other end directly from one end of the traffic trench, smashing all the Russians in the traffic trench to pieces.

Obviously, attacking from the traffic trench is not a good way. There is no way to dodge here. Even if the cannon is loaded slowly, after firing a shot, there is a chance to rush up in the gap, but there are still French soldiers over there. The guns in the hand fired in turn, which could block the Russians for a while, and then the cannon was reloaded...

Since it is not feasible to take advantage of the traffic trench and rush there, we can only attack from the ground. However, the situation on the ground is not very good. There are many landmines buried there, and there are barbed wires. Behind the barbed wires, there are also artillery and broadsword landmines with shotguns.

The Russians took advantage of the opportunity of the French retreating to the second trench to attack again. This time, however, they failed to cross the trench, their courage and strength exhausted by the battle ahead. This time he didn't even get over the barbed wire and was beaten back by the French.

"The French are going to counterattack." Suvorov immediately made such a judgment.

Sure enough, the French began to launch a counterattack. They first used rifles and artillery shells to drive the retreating Russian army back to the first trench. The Russians jumped into the trenches one after another, relying on the cover of the trenches to shoot at the French on the opposite side. However, this pair of shots is still unfair. The first trench does not have a parapet built up of soil on the side facing the French, so in terms of depth, at least in this direction, the first trench is not enough to cover live the whole person.

However, when more people retreated into the first trench, a large flash of light suddenly flashed in the first trench, followed by rumbling explosions.

It turned out that the insidious Frenchman had already buried mines detonated by wires in the first trench. At this time, they suddenly detonated them, causing huge casualties to the Russian troops who retreated into it. The French army also took the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

At this time, the Russian reinforcements also began to approach the first trench. But at this moment, the artillery on the French side roared again.

Suvorov had expected that the French would continue to fire on the reinforcements with solid shells. This time however the shells were completely different, they had a much higher trajectory. (The muzzle velocity of the artillery of this era is very low, and the shells are visible to the naked eye when they are flying.)

"This is not an ordinary solid shell." Bagration said. "Although such a ballistic height allows the shell to fly farther, it is difficult to form a ricochet. This is not an ordinary solid shell."

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