Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Heine fumbled to take the telescope from the attendant and saw a dense throng of soldiers gathering in front of the Prussian line, an array so long it seemed endless.

"Quick! Sound the alarm!" he shouted at once, "The Prussians are about to launch an attack!"

Fortunately, although the Legnica frontline had remained calm, it was still a state of war between two countries, so the soldiers maintained a state of combat readiness every day.

Soon, sharp whistles and assembly drumbeats rang out all around.

Austrian soldiers grumbled as they lined up near the defensive line, and then heard dense cannon fire coming from the opposite side.

Accompanied by the screeches of shells, nearly 20 cannonballs landed near the Austrian artillery positions, kicking up a large amount of dust.

The Austrian artillerymen also returned fire hastily but after firing about a dozen shots, they were shocked to find that their ammunition was nearly depleted.

The Prussians started to risk pushing their cannons forward, and upon realizing that the counterattack from the other side was very weak, they immediately became bolder, including several 24-pound siege cannons hauled to the front line by teams of horses snorting and struggling.

The Duke of Brunswick had already assembled all the cannons in the area, nearly doubling the number of cannons of the defending troops in front, and with ample ammunition, the Prussian bombardment soon left the Austrian gunners unable to raise their heads.

Marshal Lacy also received the news and rushed to the defensive sector previously held by Davydov at the quickest pace. It was already 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

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What he saw was that on his own defensive line, only 4 cannons were still holding out, though their rate of fire was so low that it made him want to curse.

Across the field, the Prussian Infantry had fully deployed, perfectly covering the entire Davydov defence sector. Just on the first line of infantry, there were approximately 14,000 men!

At the same time, a large number of skirmishers had already taken advantage of the terrain to sneak within 400 paces of their own defensive line.

On his side, there was only a rather thin line of infantry that appeared to be no more than 10,000 men at most. However, many troops that had just received the news were hurrying over, but in a state of forced march, they would not be able to join the battle right away.

Marshal Lacy’s back was drenched in cold sweat; indeed, it had been risky to move away Davydov and Conrad’s corps, but he had not expected Ferdinand, that fellow—he recognized here as the Duke of Brunswick—to initiate a targeted attack so soon.

In fact, Lacy had not failed to reinforce this sector, but with just under 100,000 troops left at his disposal, and the entire line of defense to care for, this segment had received barely over 15,000 people in charge.

The cannonade from the Prussians gradually subsided, followed by the sound of sonorous bugle calls.

Lacy hurriedly looked through his telescope and saw Prussian skirmishers beginning to harass their own line formation. This meant that the enemy would soon launch a general attack, and a large amount of infantry would bear down on them.

"Damn it!" he muttered under his breath, "If it weren’t for that little Frenchman, how could my defensive line have opened such a huge gap!"

By this moment, he had completely forgotten that he had come to Silesia not to build a defensive line but to defeat the Prussians and recover his homeland.

If defense had been the goal, Austria could have completely retreated to the Bohemia area, relying on the Sudeten Mountains for a more efficient defense.

But complaints were useless at this point, and all Marshal Lacy could do was dispatch his orderly officers to desperately urge the reinforcing troops to hasten their pace, and then, ignoring his subordinates’ attempts to dissuade him, he personally went to the front line, running back and forth to buoy the morale of his men.

Not long after, a 12-pound cannonball whizzed by his side, created a huge gap in the infantry line, and nearly rolled to the second row of formations before being stopped by an earthen mound.

The attendants, looking at the blood and flesh mixed with the soil on the ground, hurriedly carried the Marshal to the rear.

Then, the Prussian Army, with four of its most elite Grenadier Battalions at the core, began to slowly advance their narrow infantry lines toward the Austrian positions.

Marshal Lacy’s encouragement had a certain effect. Austrian soldiers, with the cooperation of skirmishers, actually managed to hold firm against the grenadiers’ close-range volleys from the opposite side. Then, under the orders of their officers, they returned fire with volleys from a distance of 40 paces.

In the age of linear infantry battles, as long as the soldiers could stand their ground, there was a fight to be had.

The two sides quickly became engaged in a firefight, with tens of thousands of soldiers standing in tight formations along a battle line more than 3 kilometers long, standing erect, mechanically reloading and firing continuously.

Kill the enemy soldiers facing you or be struck down by their bullets.

This is what people often refer to as "standing in line for execution by firing squad."

After seven or eight rounds of mutual shooting, the Prussian Army, despite its numerical advantage, began to falter first. Some soldiers started to duck and move backwards.

By then, the Prussian Army was no longer the fierce force under Emperor Frederick. Even in terms of individual soldier quality, they were slightly inferior to the Austrians.

The first wave of Prussian Infantry gradually retreated; immediately, excited cheers erupted from the Austrian positions.

However, Marshal Lacy didn’t dare let his soldiers pursue, for he knew that the Prussians had a huge advantage in troop strength.

Sure enough, the Duke of Brunswick quickly ordered the second line of infantry to attack, giving the Austrians no chance to catch their breath.

On Lacy’s side, he ordered several skirmishers to harass the Prussian left wing at all costs, coordinating with the only remaining three cannons to barely hold the defensive line.

Thus, the two sides remained deadlocked until night fell and each retreated to their respective camps.

However, after half a day’s struggle, Austria had suffered heavy losses, especially the elite skirmisher battalions, which were severely depleted.

After inspecting the wounded, Lacy had already begun to make arrangements to set up a second line of defense to the west.

The next morning, the Duke of Brunswick wasted no time in launching a fierce offensive.

Under the relentless attacks of the over 50,000-strong Prussian Army, the Austrian Army held out until around two in the afternoon, when a unit of Prussian Hussars found a gap and cut into their infantry’s left flank.

With the cavalry’s continuous harassment of the flanks, the Austrian defensive line promptly collapsed.

The Duke of Brunswick decisively ordered the cavalry to squeeze inward from both sides against the Austrian corps, while also deploying a large number of infantry to set up defensive lines on the southern and northern sides to obstruct the Austrian reinforcements.

Marshal Lacy desperately commanded his soldiers to retreat but was still blocked by Prussian Cavalry in a depression 15 kilometers from the front line a day later.

Fortunately, he managed to slip out of the encirclement before the enemy closed in. However, when he looked at the map and saw the huge gap in his own defensive line, his heart grew cold.

The best scenario at this point was to hold the Prussians back and wait for his own troops to retreat from Ratibor and then attempt to stabilize the front line.

However, after this disastrous defeat, reclaiming Silesia had almost become an impossibility.

As for the more than 10,000 soldiers who were surrounded, he had little hope left for them.

Yet, just as he sat on his horse, peering through his binoculars at those surrounded soldiers, his eyes suddenly widened—

In the far distance, a cavalry unit was charging at high speed toward the Prussian flank, and those men seemed to be wearing white uniforms.

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