Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Standing on a high ground, Delrisen saw his infantry line collapse before it even properly engaged with the enemy, and he immediately flung his binoculars to the ground in anger.

"They are a disgrace to the Royal Guards!"

He then remembered that his Grenadier Corps were still holding on and urgently said to the orderly officer, "Order Bohr and Karlus's units to go up and reinforce the grenadiers!"

These two units were his reserves. In his opinion, the mismanagement of the Fein Legion must have led to the mishap. As long as they could stabilize the situation with the Grenadier Corps at the core, they should still be able to hold out.

Soon, the Prussian reserve unit, which had just formed up, began to advance. Previously positioned about 200 steps behind the first infantry line, they needed only about ten minutes to fill the gap.

This second line formation also served another purpose, to block the soldiers trying to flee in the event of a collapse at the front.

In the wars of this era, the lethality of weapons was actually quite limited—a volley from tens of thousands of flintlock guns often resulted in only a hundred or so casualties. Most of the time, morale broke first, with soldiers fleeing the formation, leading to a rout. So as long as soldiers could continue to stand in their place, there was still a fight to be had.

However, the soldiers fleeing from the front this time seemed extremely terrified, and they kept running back despite the bayonets of the reserve units.

Many of them were shouting in panic, "They simply cannot be killed..."

"Run, for they are devils!"

This caused hesitation even among the reservists, until the officers shot a few deserters and personally moved to the very front to lead the advance, barely stabilizing the situation.

But before Bohr and Karlus's units could fill the gap in the infantry line at the front, the two Grenadier Legions also began to disintegrate.

There was really no way to prevent it—the fighting power of those intern students from the Guard Corps was too strong. Whether in terms of loading, shooting, formation level, or morale, they completely overpowered the Prussians.

Especially since this time they were protected by bullet-proof inserts, the intern students were exhilarated, charging to within less than 20 steps of the Prussians, and with a single volley, they completely broke the enemy.

In fact, at such close range, the bullet-proof inserts could no longer provide effective protection. However, the Prussians could no longer maintain volley fire, and the sporadic shots were nearly harmless.

Delrisen took the staff's binoculars and saw that his own reserve troops had barely engaged the enemy before they began to flee along with the Grenadier Corps.

His face turned ashen as he glanced at his watch; the French had broken through his temporary defense line in less than half an hour.

He was well aware that his main force was still in total disarray at the moment. Engaging the well-formed French under such circumstances would only lead to being chased and beaten.

Delrisen sighed resignedly. After the death of Frederick the Great, the training level of the Prussian Army had become increasingly worse, and now even the very elite Royal Guards had been reduced to this state.

Hearing the French gunfire getting closer, he quickly turned his horse to retreat, then looked back at the orderly officer and said, "Order the Auguste Legion to immediately return to Legnica. The other legions are to withdraw orderly to the north and defend in echelon."

The Auguste Legion, which was originally responsible for the rearguard, was the farthest from the French at this point and might have a chance to escape. The other units could only buy time as they retreated—maybe, with some luck, some might even make it back.

Yes, Delrisen had decided to give up resistance.

He suddenly remembered that two months ago, he and Krokow were talking about how Charles II was easily defeated by the French people in Luxembourg, at the time, they were all mocking the Hanoverians as useless.

Now it seems, perhaps the Hanoverian Army wasn't that bad, but the French people were just too strong…

Colonel Duden, upon receiving the command to retreat in echelon, immediately ordered his officers to leave all their baggage behind, and his soldiers to assemble and form ranks on the slope on the eastern side.

His unit was located at the southernmost position, and it was certain they couldn't retreat; all they could do now was to try and buy time for the other corps.

However, not long after he issued his command, he heard bursts of cannon fire from the east.

His heart immediately tightened, wasn't General Delrisen saying the enemy's main force was in the southwest? What was going on with these cannons?

Duden's unformed unit suffered direct cannon fire and immediately fell into disarray, beginning to flee toward the Prussian troops to the north, seeking cover.

The mounted artillery of the Guard Corps also hadn't expected such a smooth operation.

They had previously ambushed the Prussian Army's vanguard, only intending to delay the enemy to facilitate an infantry attack on the Prussian flanks.

Unexpectedly, nearly 4,000 men from the Prussian Bleichet Legion had scattered after a few rounds of bombardment from their ten six-pound cannons, coupled with a bit of harassment from the hussars.

The commandant of the mounted artillery had planned to regroup with the main body of the Guard Corps, but that Major named Napoleon suggested to continue moving closer to the center of the Prussian line for a surprise attack to coordinate with the infantry's decisive battle.

In the end, Napoleon convinced his superior, and the mounted artillery, under the protection of 400 hussars, leveraged their mobility to circumvent the fleeing Bleichet Legion and arrived east of Delrisen's main force first.

Then they discovered that the Prussians had begun to retreat.

Of course, the mounted artillery didn't hesitate to bombard the enemy immediately.

By the time the main body of the Guard infantry had swiftly dealt with the Fein Corps and rushed several kilometers north, they didn't encounter Delrisen's main force at all, only some enemy corpses and Prussian soldiers who hadn't managed to escape.

Soon after, a few mounted riflemen who were left behind for communication reported to Bertier that the mounted artillery had broken through the Prussian line and was coordinating with the hussars in pursuit of the enemy to the north.

Bertier's eyelids twitched, the mounted artillery responsible for the harassment totaled fewer than 300 men, plus ten six-pound cannons and 400 hussars providing cover, yet they were actually chasing nearly 20,000 Prussian troops in retreat?!

He quickly consulted with a few staff officers, ordering the infantry main body to move northward as quickly as possible to meet up, while sending couriers to call back the mounted artillery.

After all, the numbers of the Prussian Army were too great; if they were to regroup and counterattack, it could very likely be a disaster for the mounted artillery.

An hour and a half later, Joseph also arrived at the former command post of Delrisen—currently, the battlefield situation was still quite chaotic, and Bertier, concerned about potential surprises, along with the staff officers, strongly urged that he remain in a safer rear area until it was confirmed the enemy had been cleared before allowing him to come here.

"Your Highness, at present our vanguard has pursued the enemy as far as Jagerndorf Village," reported Bertier, "and the Bleichet Legion, fleeing toward Breslau, had also been caught by the Mounted Rifles Camp."