Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Marshal Lacy was suddenly bewildered. Hadn’t the entire French Army gone to support Leao at Ratibor, and their Crown Prince was still encircled by the enemy at Oberon, so where did these people come from?

Even more confused than him were the Prussian Cavalry tasked with the pursuit.

Previously, they had been eagerly pursuing and killing the routed Austrian soldiers without scouting the vicinity—after all, an army of fifteen thousand in disarray, with countless dead and wounded, who would think the Austrian Allied Forces would ambush their own troops behind them?

Yes, Joseph had ambushed the Guard Corps behind the Austrian line of defense.

After defeating Delrisen, he immediately led his troops back to the Austrian-controlled area near Legnica. Moreover, to avoid detection by Lacy, the troops had hunkered down in the wilderness for several days, waiting until Lacy sent out over thirty thousand men under Davydov, before discreetly returning, lying in wait less than 15 kilometers southwest of the Austrian defense line.

Today, after the Prussians launched their full assault, the Guard Corps also began to move.

The main force was divided into two parts, one of which quickly inserted itself to the north of the Prussian assault point, establishing a defensive formation relying on the terrain, amounting to about four thousand soldiers.

The other part, comprised of ten thousand soldiers, maneuvered to the south side of the Prussian attack point. When the Austrian defense line collapsed, they let the Austrian soldiers "lure" the Prussians into their own territory, then suddenly cut off the Prussian Army’s retreat from the flank.

This was equivalent to using the fifteen thousand-strong Austrian Army on the line of defense as bait. And the bait was truly convincing, for they had indeed been routed.

Of course, the foundation for this tactic to work was Joseph’s belief that the Guard Corps could intercept an enemy several times their number with a force of fourteen thousand and hold out for at least about three days.

The Prussian Hussars, in the midst of their excited pursuit of the routed Austrian soldiers, suddenly found their flanks under surprise attack and immediately plunged into chaos. Explore more stories at

In film and television, cavalry ordinarily surge forward in a mass and easily make the enemy flee in panic. But in reality, cavalry is a type of troop that values formation even more than infantry do.

Large formations of cavalry have very strict requirements for the distances between horses both side to side and front to back during an attack. If too far apart, they can’t generate collective force; yet if too close, they interfere with each other, and even one person falling can lead to many more toppling over.

Therefore, qualified cavalry are extremely difficult to train, spending years on horseback just to acquire the skill of controlling distance. Maintaining formation during battle must rely on subconscious control, since their main focus is on their sabers or lances.

This leads to the situation where, once cavalry are set on their initial target, they can only charge in that direction. To change targets, they need to maneuver to a distant location, regroup, and relaunch the charge. Otherwise, a sudden change of target can cause issues with the distances and proportions within the formation. Of course, some highly trained elite cavalry units are able to switch targets with ease, but those are rare exceptions.

At the moment, the Prussian Hussars’ target was to cut down the routed Austrian soldiers, so they were utterly powerless against the sudden flank attack.

Their commander, however, responded quickly, immediately ordering a withdrawal from the pursuit of the Austrians, moving away with the intention to regroup for a counterattack.

But that French Cavalry unit paid no attention to the Austrian soldiers—after all, the battle line was very long, and this was just one segment of it, with a large number of Austrian troops still being chased by enemy cavalry in the east and west—instead, it kept a close watch on the Prussian Cavalry, chasing them until they had all been scattered, before rushing towards the next target.

Marshal Lacy, witnessing gaps forming in the encirclement by the Prussian Cavalry, hurriedly ordered the officers by his side to go and gather the fleeing troops.

Around 3 p.m., several thousand Austrian soldiers had regrouped around Marshal Lacy, and a squadron of gallant French Cavalry just so happened to pass by nearby. Led by a slightly plump, curly-haired cavalry lieutenant, they greeted them with raised swords.

After a brief exchange with the cavalry scout, Lacy’s attendant returned and reported to him, "Marshal, they claim to be from the First Legion of the Royal Guards, Second Company of the Third Hussars, specifically here to cover our army’s retreat."

"The Royal Guards?" Lacy exclaimed in surprise, "That unit following the Crown Prince of France? Weren’t they trapped in Oberon?"

"The lieutenant says he doesn’t know anything about being trapped. They fought a battle with the Delrisen Legion and then came here," the attendant replied.

Lacy: "???"

...

On the western side of the Austrian line of defense, which was under Austrian control, a massive influx of Prussian soldiers was pouring into a breach in the line, with two units attacking north and south to expand the gap.

Not far from the Austrian defense, a cavalry scout from the Guard Corps raced towards the command post and shouted, "Report, Prussian infantry have reached Wolffenstette, with an approximate vanguard of 11,000 men. The total strength of the enemy main force is still being tallied, but it should exceed 30,000."

Upon hearing this, Bertier nodded and said to a staff officer beside him, "The enemy has penetrated deep enough, order the attack to commence as planned."

Wolffenstette lay deep within the Austrian-controlled territory, more than 6 kilometers from the Prussian-Austrian stand-off line.

"Yes, General!"

Since this battle involved fighting a numerically superior enemy, posing a great risk. It had been unanimously decided by the general staff that His Highness the Crown Prince should stay well away from the battlefield. Thus, Bertier was in command. However, Joseph had already made detailed plans with his staff beforehand, so it hardly mattered who took command.

Soon, the distant sounds of the Yuyang bugle signalled the corps’ assault. Bertier looked towards his aide, "Where has General Kellermann reached?"

"As of last night’s report, he has crossed the lower reaches of the Bober River," the aide answered.

According to Joseph’s plan, Kellermann’s 30,000 French troops were never really meant to reinforce Leao. They made a symbolic few shots at Ratibor but as soon as they received the Crown Prince’s orders, they immediately rushed back to the Legnica frontline. However, given the old army’s marching speed, it would probably take another three days to arrive.

Bertier then instructed, "Get in touch with Marshal Lacy and ask him to cooperate with us as best as he can, to counter-attack the enemy entering the western side of the line."

"Yes, General!"

At the breach in the Austrian defense, General Morris of the Saxon Army was looking through his binoculars with a sullen expression on his face.

The Prussians were chasing down the broken remnants of the Austrians for an easy victory, while he was tasked with gnawing at the Austrian defensive line.

Although the morale of the Austrian Army had already dissipated, there were still many heavy guns on the line, and this was certainly no easy task.

Just as he saw his own skirmishers take control of a highland, capturing the artillery position there and before he could feel any satisfaction, he saw a neat line of infantry suddenly appear behind the small hill.

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