Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Blucher kicked over the Italian-style carved chair with his foot and grabbed the collar of the messenger, his voice sharp as he demanded, "What on earth happened? How many Frenchmen came?"

"Roughly, probably over 10,000…" the other said with a lowered head, trembling, "Their infantry line only launched one attack and broke through the Dutch defense line."

"10,000 men?" Blucher's hand loosened, releasing the messenger, but he shook his head incessantly.

Even if the estimate of the enemy's size was off, but 5,000 from the Netherlands Army, along with the cavalry and artillery I sent, totalled nearly 7,000 men blocking near that mountain pass.

With a defense line already set up in advance, it should have been no problem to hold back the 10,000 French Army for the whole day.

Yet now, they had only held on for a little over an hour!

Was the Duke of Brunswick's assessment of the South Netherlanders' combat prowess wrong? Were those fellows actually just good-for-nothing weaklings...

No, that's not right! Blucher immediately shook his head again. It was the same people who, bearing numbers far exceeding their own, fought the Austrians extremely hard and even surpassed the Prussian Infantry in terms of morale.
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"General," his staff officer, seeing him drift off, quickly called out loudly, "What should we do now?"

Blucher snapped back to attention. Right, now was not the time to fret over the South Netherlanders' combat abilities. His main force was being cut off by the French in the middle. If mishandled, they could suffer a catastrophic defeat.

He tried to calm himself down, walked quickly to the map, paused for a moment, and pointed to a marked X on the east side - the position of the remains of the Austrian forces, and said to the orderly officer, "Order Bachhaus Corps and Alterman Corps to leave 1,000 men to watch Leao, the rest of the forces need to pull back immediately."

"The Dietlinde Corps must reach here before two o'clock in the afternoon!" He pressed hard on a spot to the southeast on the map. After breaking through the South Netherlands Army's defense line, that area had become the French Army's rear.

Blucher took a deep breath at last, "Maximilian with two corps will delay the French here. Artillery and the remaining infantry will move north and set up a defense line at Wincel Town.

"We still have an advantage in troop strength. As long as we hold firm and steady, we can definitely defeat the French on the frontal battlefield!"

Having lost Witte's South Netherlands Army and part of the cavalry, Blucher still had 16,000 soldiers in his hands. If he regrouped with Prussian forces stationed near Wincel, then his troops would number close to 20,000.

At this moment, all Blucher had to do was to consolidate his main force toward the rear. If the corps dispatched to the east and west shrank inward, they could form a pocket defense. Then with the advantage in numbers, they could reverse the adverse situation in one fell swoop.

"Yes, General!" The orderly officer turned and left the tent, swiftly relaying his orders throughout the entire army.

...

On a gentle slope several kilometers to the northeast, Leao looked pale-faced at the increasing number of Prussian forces, his voice quivering as he said to Lefevre beside him, "Major, there seem to be six to seven thousand enemies, and they have brought cannons…

"The Crown Prince's troops still haven't arrived, should we retreat north first?"

Although Lefevre also looked grave—he had only about 2,000 men, and Leao's Austrian Army was nearly useless—it would be extremely difficult to deal with the Prussian force of over 6,000 including artillery.

Yet, he firmly shook his head, "No, the Prince will definitely come to reinforce us before noon."

He smiled again and said, "Even if Your Highness had not come, I would not have left this place. Retreat is not an honor for a soldier."

Just as he was preparing to send the cavalry to launch a surprise attack on the Prussians' cannons while they were reorganizing their formation, he suddenly noticed a chaos emerging from the enemy's position.

He quickly raised his binoculars and saw that over a dozen Prussian orderly officers were riding back and forth through the ranks, evidently issuing some important orders.

Soon, a cavalry scout came galloping over and shouted to him, "Major, the Prussian Army's rearguard is turning around; it seems they intend to retreat."

Lefevre's eyes lit up immediately, and he slapped Leao on the shoulder and laughed loudly, "You see, I told you, Your Highness has come to help us!"

The latter, although three ranks his senior, laughed off the moment and nodded in agreement, "Yes, you're right. We are finally safe. Oh, thank God! Praise to the brave Crown Prince!"

"Now I need to return to my tent for a cup of coffee to relax my tense nerves."

"Wait!" Lefevre grabbed him, while yet again raising his binoculars to observe, "If the Prussians are retreating because of the Crown Prince's attack, we can't let them get away with it."

Leao was taken aback, "What, what are you planning to do?"

Lefevre revealed a smile, "We'll take the initiative to attack!"

"No, no! You're joking, right..."

Lefevre proved he was serious with his actions; just half an hour later, his corps and two accompanying cavalry squadrons began to drag the Austrian Army with them as they launched a fierce attack on the opposition's Prussians.

Lefevre's decision to bring the Austrian Army was because he knew that the Prussians were targeting Leao, so as long as the Austrians were at his side, more of the Prussian offensive firepower would fall on them.

The Prussian commander, Alterman, who was responsible for pursuing Leao, never expected the Austrians, at an absolute disadvantage in numbers, to dare to take the offensive.

However, as the command of Marquis Blucher was for him to return immediately to assist, besides the rearguard of a thousand men, all other soldiers had already entered a marching state.

He could only grind his teeth and urge his troops to retreat quickly; the Marquis's deployment was most important.

But before his main force had gone a kilometer, the sound of galloping horses reached them from behind—Lefevre, even when facing an equal number of Prussian troops, was confident of victory, let alone against a mere thousand of the enemy.

He personally led a column charge and virtually unobstructedly crushed the enemy's rearguard; then, he quickly pursued Alterman's forces.

Mula gazed excitedly at the winding Prussian marching columns in the distance. The Guard Corps had been on the defense all day; he had no chance to gain military exploits, but now he finally had the opportunity to prove the claims he had boasted—it wasn't impossible to slay ten unformed infantrymen.

Following the cavalry squadron leader's command, Mula began to trot, and soon he started cutting down the Prussian cavalry who had hurriedly come out to defend.

…

Blucher's guards had just finished loading his luxurious furniture onto the horse-drawn carriages, ready to move out, when they saw two hussars, mad with urgency, streak past beside them, shouting at the nearby Blucher, "General, a large contingent of French Army has appeared behind us!"