"Your Excellency Marshal, urgent battle report. General Kleiski's army is over, almost completely wiped out." A staff officer ran into Kutuzov's temporary headquarters in Slubice with a face full of panic.
"What? The whole army is destroyed?" Kutuzov was drinking coffee at that time, but when he heard the news, the cup in his hand fell to the ground and shattered.
"How did this happen? Kleiski's army has 10,000 elite Cossack cavalry? The entire army was defeated. Could it be that the strength of the French has really become so strong?" Kutuzov said a little asked in disbelief.
"Your Excellency Marshal, I don't know what's going on. I brought you the battle report just after I got it from the communications soldier. I only read the first few words and knew that the matter was important, so I didn't read the rest. I brought it for you." The staff officer said in a panic.
"What about the battle report?" Kutuzov asked anxiously. He was anxious to find out what was going on, and if things changed, he would have to consider whether to retreat temporarily.
The staff officer hastily handed the battle report to Kutuzov.
The battle report was also rather vague. It only said that Kleinski's army was violently shelled when crossing the river, causing heavy casualties, and the army that rushed to the other side was quickly wiped out. In the end, only a handful of troops remained on the shore, and Kleinski and his personal soldiers fled back.
The battle report was very short, Kutuzov read it in only two or three minutes, but after reading the battle report, he still couldn't figure out what was going on, so he asked, "Where is Kleiski now?"
"General Kleinski is still on his way, and he probably won't be back until a while later." The staff officer replied.
"He came back and asked him to come to see me immediately. In addition, General Savanovic, who is in charge of intelligence, immediately sent someone to find out which army is in Frankfurt, and how many troops are there in their entire defense line?" Kutu Zoff ordered. He even suspected that this was simply a trap set by the French army.
After 20 minutes, Kleiski appeared in front of Kutuzov in a mess. Seeing Kleiski's embarrassed appearance, Kutuzov felt particularly disgusted in his heart. I really don't know how I could appreciate this stupid pig in the first place, Kutuzov thought to himself.
"General Kleinsky, please tell me the details of the battle this morning. I want to know why our powerful tens of thousands of elite Cossack cavalry were wiped out in less than two hours. You are from Russia Shame, I want to report to His Majesty the Tsar that you are sent to the gallows." Kutuzov yelled at Kleski angrily.
"Your Excellency Marshal, please don't treat me like that. It's not my fault. I didn't expect the French to have so many cannons? Please let me go." Kutuzov said that he would hang himself In a fight, Kleisky was frightened and fell to the ground, and quickly hugged Kutuzov's thigh like a dog and begged him to let him go.
"Your Excellency, General, please pay attention to your image. Now you are still a soldier of the Empire. Now I want to know the details of the battle. If your statement satisfies me, I will consider not reporting your crimes to His Majesty the Tsar." " Kutuzov said in disgust.
Hearing that he could survive, Kleinski cheered up again, and immediately told Kutuzov all the details of the morning's battle, because he believed that he did not make any mistakes in command. But it was because he didn't figure out the reality of the French that his army was almost wiped out. This should be the intelligence department's mistake, not his fault. At the same time, in order to save his life, he wanted to exaggerate the firepower of the French army again, and completely put aside the reason for this failure from him.
After listening to Kleisky's words, Kutuzov fell into deep thought. He also knew that Kleinski might have exaggerated the firepower of the French army, but the firepower that could wipe out ten thousand Cossack cavalry in a short time was still very terrifying, so he had to be cautious. Said to Kleinski: "Go down and rest first, I will come to you again if there is something to do."
Kleinski was a little worried, but in the end he didn't say anything, turned and left. After Kleisky left, Kutuzov sent someone to call Savanovic, who was in charge of intelligence, to his headquarters.
"General Savanovic, have you figured out the enemy's situation?" Kutuzov asked immediately after Savanovic arrived.
"It has been confirmed that it was the French 88th Army that fought against General Kleski this morning. The defense line built by the French has a total strength of 170,000 troops." Savanovic reported the integrated information to Kutuzov road.
"It is indeed 170,000, but 100,000 of them are the army of the Rhine League. This army does not have much combat effectiveness at all. It seems that our previous judgment is correct. The French are indeed relatively empty. The troops of the Rhineland Confederation were also sent to the battlefield," Savanovic explained.
"That's right. And what about Kreiskey's fiasco this morning?"
"According to our findings, the 88th Army does have a lot of cannons, but General Klesk didn't know it, so he still adopted the intensive assault method, which is why he suffered heavy losses under the fierce artillery bombardment of the enemy. As long as we pay attention when we attack, it should be completely avoidable." Savanovic said the method he thought of.
Hearing what Savanovic said, Kutuzov suddenly realized that he had been caught in the vicious circle of fearing that it was a French trap. Just to be on the safe side, he still asked: "Where is the army of Grand Duke Nicholas now, and when will it be able to reach the front line?" He can also deal with it calmly.
"The Grand Duke has arrived in New Tomyhill now, and it is estimated that he will arrive in the morning of the day after tomorrow."
"Well then, it's all right, you go down," said Kutuzov.
At this time, the 88th Army's position was a sea of joy. They did not expect to wipe out tens of thousands of elite Cossack cavalry so easily. Xiao Jie even ordered to treat everyone at noon, but the enemy might attack again, so no one was prepared to drink.
After lunch, Xiao Jie came to inspect the first line of defense. Since the enemy hardly breached the position, the line of defense was not damaged at all. There was still the smell of blood in the air, and corpses were still floating on the Oder River. Now the river is not abundant, and the corpses of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers are almost blocking the entire river.
Although he won the battle in the morning, Xiao Jie knew that this was just the beginning, because the Russian army knew the strength of the 88th Army, so it would suffer heavy losses due to negligence. Once they understand it, the battle will not be so easy to fight. Xiao Jie warned everyone not to underestimate the Russian army after the battle in the morning, the real battle is just beginning now.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, the Russian army launched an offensive again, but this time the attack was directed by Kutuzov himself. The Russian army learned from the experience in the morning. This time the attack was very divided. A total of 20,000 Russian troops launched an attack on the French defense line on the 10-kilometer front. The focus of the attack was still on Frankfurt. Because Kutuzov has always wanted to capture the Crown Prince of France, although he himself knew that this was unlikely, but he was stubborn and wanted to try it.
Since he discovered that the Russian army had adopted a new tactic, Xiao Jie ordered the artillery regiment not to wait until the Russian army was about to cross the river to start shelling, but to greet them with shells as soon as the Russian army came into range. It is a little bit of time to be able to delay, who told them that the most they need now is time?
Kutuzov was very surprised when he found that the French cannons had far surpassed those of his own country, and at the same time instructed Savanovic to learn from the French how to design such cannons at all costs. Get it out. Probably because of Kutuzov's personal command, the morale of the Cossack cavalry was high, shouting "Ulla" and rushing towards the French defense line.
The artillery of the 88th Army also roared again, but because the enemy was too far apart, although it still caused a lot of casualties to the Russian army, it was not as heavy as in the morning.
It seemed that some Sark cavalrymen had already rushed ashore, but fortunately they were all killed by heavy machine gun fire. Xiao Jie was very anxious, and ordered: "Pass my order, the heavy artillery battalion of the Legion will aim at the XXX-XXX direction to bombard."
The Heavy Artillery Battalion is equipped with a total of eight 105mm howitzers, which are extremely powerful, but because they are too heavy, and the firing speed is only one shot per minute and a half, Xiao Jie has no plans to equip a large number of troops for the time being. The XXX-XXX direction is where the Russian army is relatively dense. Once the heavy artillery battalion fires, the Russian army in that area will be out of luck. Often, when a shell falls, there will be no living things within tens of square meters. up. The Russian army was so frightened that they dispersed quickly. The French army also constantly changed the shooting direction in order to inflict the greatest damage on the Russian army.
Kutuzov was startled by a sudden violent explosion on the battlefield. He saw with his own eyes that more than thirty Cossack cavalry had nothing after the explosion. The French must have surrendered to Satan~www.mtlnovel.com~ If it weren't for how there would be such evil weapons, but it would be great if those cannons belonged to me! Kutuzov could not help thinking of this. When these killing weapons are in the hands of others, they will feel how evil they are, but once they are in their own hands, they will become wonderful.
The Russian army's attack in the afternoon was much sharper than in the morning. Even with advanced weapons such as heavy machine guns and mortars, several lines of defense were still broken by the Russian army. The Russian army that broke through the line of defense was like a wolf entering a flock of sheep, causing a lot of casualties to the 3rd regiment, but the counterattack of the soldiers of the 3rd regiment was also extremely fierce. It can be said that the low roar of the heavy machine gun has never been Stopped, scrapped one barrel and immediately replaced it with a spare one to continue shooting.
The fighting continued until it was almost dark. The Russian army suffered more than 6,000 casualties, and the 3rd Regiment also suffered more than 500 casualties. Xiao Jie was even a little worried that if the Russian army's attack was so fierce tomorrow, whether the first line of defense could still be held.
With so many casualties, Kutuzov was also very distressed, but he also saw the hope of victory. The French army's defense line is not indestructible. As long as the method is appropriate and there are enough troops, it is not difficult to break through the opponent's defense line .
(to be continued,)