On October 10, the Fifth Army of Marshal Lannes approached the city of Saalfeld and fought fiercely with the 15,000 enemy troops of Prince Ludwig who guarded the city. The prince was outnumbered and died in hand-to-hand combat. His men fled to Weimar, guarded by the Duke of Brunswick, or Jena, guarded by Prince Hohenlohe. The rapidity of the French surprised the Prussian commander. They didn't expect the French army's attack to be so fast, so fast that they had no time to complete the strategic deployment.
The French army continued to advance, and Napoleon concluded that the main force of the enemy would be concentrated at Gila, but he missed it, and there was not even a Prussian regular army in sight there, except for local troops of less than a thousand men. Napoleon ordered Murat's cavalry corps to explore the way ahead, and Davout's guard corps was also drawn to march on Naumburg, led by Lannes and Lie on both wings. At the same time, Xiao Jie was also ordered to assemble the 88th Army, ready to support the frontline battle at any time.
The generals of the Prussian army Friedrich and Brunswick were still on their way to Weimar at this time. After they learned that the French army had occupied Naumburg and Leipzig in front of them, they immediately stopped their advance.
In the early morning of October 13, the Prussian army held a military meeting and decided not to fight the French army near Jena, but to turn to the north, but this was completely contrary to their previous combat plan. In the decisive battle with the French army nearby, the battle plan is temporarily changed, which has a great adverse effect on the army. Especially turning to the north, this decision is tantamount to fleeing, which makes the morale of the Prussian army extremely low. If the French army can seize this plan and launch a fierce attack on the Prussian army, then maybe they can win the war against Prussia Negative. However, Napoleon was unaware of this, and still expected a decisive battle with the Prussian army before the 16th. One of the major weaknesses of Napoleon's operations was the lack of reliable military intelligence, especially in this battle. It is said that his German allies and his direct contacts in Berlin and the Prussian army should be able to provide him with timely and accurate information. But in fact, this was not the case at all. At this time, a large amount of information on the French army's operations was brought back by scouts, and the information that had been placed before seemed to have completely disappeared.
After receiving numerous reports from Davout, Lie, and Murat, at 9:00 am on the 13th, Napoleon finally realized that the entire Prussian army had moved north. He immediately issued a series of orders to Davout, Lannes, Lie, Lunet, and Bernadotte to prepare for the decisive battle at Jena or to pursue the fleeing Prussians. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Napoleon, who was advancing towards the city of Jena, received a report from Lannes that the army had occupied the city of Jena. Napoleon made the final strategic deployment and decided to wipe out the main force of the Prussian army still between Weimar and Jena.
In fact, Lana's Fifth Army captured Jena in one fell swoop that morning, and the Prussians fled in a hurry. Napoleon rushed to the north of Jena to join Lana in the afternoon. Napoleon ordered Lune and Lie to lead their troops to Jena quickly, and ordered other ministries to occupy the high ground north of Jena, where Napoleon was equipped with 42 heavy artillery. Napoleon believed that Brunswick's army was completely outflanked, so he ordered Davout and Bernadotte (and Murat's cavalry corps) in the west of Naumburg to march quickly to Apolda to cut off the rear of the Prussian army. road. At 6 o'clock in the morning on October 14, when the fog filled the air, Lana began to attack. Napoleon Wan did not expect that at this time they were only facing the Hohenlohe Army as the rear guard, and the main force of the Prussian army had already quietly withdrawn north. The French army had the upper hand from the beginning with advanced weapons. Several divisions of Hohenlohe were hit hard, and the troops suffered more than 10,000 casualties. The Lana army continued to attack and advance. At 11 o'clock, Lie's army arrived to join the battle. Hohenlohe did not seize the opportunity to break through, but waited for the arrival of General Rachel's reinforcements; but Rachel's reinforcements were late, and their losses were heavy during the two hours of the French attack.
By 12:30, Napoleon had more than 80,000 troops on the front line, and there were more than 60,000 reserve forces, including Murat's Cavalry Corps and Lunet's Fourth Army. At one o'clock in the afternoon, the French army officially launched an offensive, and Napoleon put all the Fourth Army and Cavalry into battle. Before the attack, the French army concentrated more than 500 cannons on the Prussian positions for half an hour, causing heavy casualties. Under the heavy shelling of the French army, many Prussians lost their fighting spirit.
After listening to his words, Napoleon and Berthier, Chief of the French General Staff, both laughed. Napoleon said: "I think so too. Cannons are very powerful, but such a large-scale bombardment is very expensive. This will put a heavy pressure on our logistics transportation lines. Judging from the current situation , our transportation system simply can’t afford it.”
From his words, Xiao Jie heard a trace of helplessness for the first time. Seeing his soldiers die on the battlefield continuously, even Napoleon, who is used to experiencing big winds and waves, still can't bear it~www.mtlnovel.com~ But maybe this is the price you have to pay for domination.
"Your Majesty, I want to ask when my army can go into battle." Xiao Jie asked.
"This? I don't know the specific arrangement. You should ask the Chief of Staff." Napoleon kicked the ball to Berthier.
Seeing Xiao Jie staring at him, Berthier had no choice but to bite the bullet and explain: "For the time being, His Highness's legion can only be used as a reserve team. Now our attack is going smoothly, so there is no need for the 88th legion to participate in the battle for the time being. You must know that the most elite troops are always left last, just like His Majesty's Imperial Guard." Berthier also flattered Xiao Jie a little.
Xiao Jie sighed helplessly. The other legions were very comfortable, but he could only be a spectator. It was indeed a bit depressing.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, Hohenlohe realized that the French army was far superior to him, so he ordered a retreat to the north, fleeing in the direction of Weimar. By 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the French army in the Battle of Jena was sure of victory. An hour later, Murat pursued the Prussians on the road to Weimar, followed by Lie's corps. They didn't take prisoners, didn't listen to begging for mercy, and killed the Prussians when they saw them. Most of the fleeing Prussians became the ghosts of the French army. Lunet also wiped out all the remaining remnants of the Prussian army.
Napoleon ordered to clean up the results of the Battle of Jena: 5,000 French casualties and 40,000 Prussian casualties. It was not until later that day, when Napoleon returned to Jena, that he learned that what his 140,000 men had defeated was not the main force of the Prussian army at all. However, the 40,000 Guards Corps led by Marshal Davout encountered in Auerstadt the main force of the Prussian army commanded by Brunswick, which was more than half his number~www.mtlnovel.com~ Welcome to the book Friends come to read, the latest, fastest and hottest serial works are all in ~www.mtlnovel.com~