Chapter 753: Divine Soldiers Fall from Heaven
Segur also solemnly stated: "Austria should be fully responsible for any consequences that occur in the Walloon Region."
In the Hessian Nobles Amidst the discussion, Segur ended his speech, left Malburg and rushed to Würzburg.
On the day he left, the newspapers in Upper Hesse published the news that "Vienna tore up the Demilitarized Zone Agreement, and the Walloon Chamber of Commerce requested French intervention."
Before coming to Upper Hesse, Segur had traveled around most of the German states day and night, giving no less than 20 speeches, letting all countries know that it was Austria that was provocative for no reason. There is a war, and France will fight it to the end.
Austria officially declared war on France on the day after the French government publicly stated that it would accept Wallonia's request and would send troops to Wallonia.
On the same day, Britain declared war on France on the grounds that "France was maliciously destroying the sugar market."
Subsequently, Prussia, Hanover, the Netherlands, and other countries also openly declared war on France.
Among them, Prussia and the Netherlands have alliance treaties with Britain and must send troops to assist Britain.
Thuringia, Lower Hesse, and Tuscany participated in the war against France at the request of Prussia and Austria.
Three days later, the diplomatic representatives of these countries signed an agreement in Potsdam, announcing the formation of an "anti-French alliance" that "will jointly safeguard the existing order on the European continent."
France immediately struck back and declared war on all members of the Anti-French Alliance.
The entire Europe was instantly plunged into the flames of total war.
……
Wavre.
The sound of artillery in the north of the city has not stopped since dawn. It has just been three days since the Walloon Chamber of Commerce requested France to send troops, but the Walloon police team is clearly unable to support it.
At this time, the northern part of the city was full of Austrians. The police relied on the iron ore warehouse in the middle of the city to reluctantly resist.
In fact, if Count Radesky hadn't been worried about destroying Wavre's factory and was a little restrained, he would have controlled the entire city at this time.
Wallonia District Chief Superintendent Gayar could not help but frown deeply as he listened to his subordinates' report on the casualties.
After these three days of fighting, police casualties were close to 500. It is extremely rare for a non-military organization to be able to survive such a casualty ratio without collapse.
What's even more terrible is that this morning a group of Austrian hussars raided the police artillery position and destroyed all their cannons.
So now the Austrian artillery can approach and fire unscrupulously, while the police defense line continues to retreat, and casualties have also increased significantly.
Gaillard knew that the Walloon police had reached their limit.
After discussing with several senior police officers, he said to his deputy:
“Order everyone to abandon Wavre. The people from the Fur Police Department are responsible for the follow-up. , the others immediately retreated to Namur."
"Yes, sir!"
Gayard raised his head again, looked at the city he had been fighting for for several days, sighed and said:
"I hope the French army can Come to Namur. "
At around three o'clock in the afternoon, a large number of police officers withdrew from the south side of Wavre, retreating towards Namur in frustration amid the roar of gunfire behind them.
However, they had just walked less than two kilometers when the faint sound of horse hooves was heard in front of them.
The police had little combat experience and their morale was low at this time, so they completely ignored the reconnaissance matter.
When Gayard could already use his telescope to see the flag of the Austrian Derna Cavalry Battalion appearing in the south, he realized that he had been intercepted by the enemy.
After a while, another mounted policeman came to report that Austrian infantry was also found on the east and west sides.
Since they had just rushed to conduct reconnaissance, the enemy was only less than 600 steps away from them at this time.
Gayard's heart tightened, and he was about to give orders to prepare for defense, but he saw the extremely tired looks on the soldiers' faces.
He shook his head and said to his deputy: "That's it, the boys have tried their best. "Raise the white flag, they shouldn't have to bear more sacrifices..."
Right here At this time, the hoofbeats of the Austrian cavalry, which had been extremely neat before, There was a sudden chaos, and then it gradually weakened. It seemed that something made them stop.
Then, a mounted policeman came galloping over and said to Gayar:
" Sir, the Austrian infantry on the west side is beginning to gather towards the west. ”
Gayar was startled. He was retreating south, but the enemy's infantry was heading west. Didn't this clear the way?
He hurriedly said to the mounted policeman: "Continue the reconnaissance, hurry up! Go and have a look further away."
"Yes, sir!"
Before the scouting policeman could wait, When the police returned, Gayar heard the sound of horse hooves from the south again.
He stood on horseback and looked through the binoculars, but was surprised to find that the hundreds of hussars turned westward.
The road to Namur is completely clear!
Although he didn't understand what happened, this was definitely a good opportunity to get rid of the Austrian army's interception.
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At this moment, Gayar suddenly felt that the sound of horse hooves in the distance was much louder than before.
Did the Austrians increase their troops?
When he was extremely anxious, the previous mounted policeman waved his riding crop and ran over quickly. He shouted loudly from a distance:
"French people! It's the French cavalry! They are attacking the Austrian army. Attack!"
Gaya's eyes suddenly widened.
How is this possible? !
Even if the French army had been waiting at the border of Walloon District before and rushed here immediately after receiving the request from the Chamber of Commerce, it would take at least a week to arrive.
And it's only been three days, why are they here?
It should be a small number of cavalry who came to reinforce themselves.
Gayard felt excited and hurriedly shouted to the police:
“Everyone, cheer up and cooperate with the French cavalry!”
Although his command level was It's relatively average, but the "Command Studies" course is not left behind.
He knew very well that without the cooperation of infantry, cavalry could easily be defeated by the enemy's infantry and cavalry coordination.
At this time, there were tens of thousands of Austrian troops near Wavre, complete with infantry, cavalry and artillery. He had to cover each other with the French cavalry before he could retreat to a safe place.
However, before the police started to move, gunshots and screams were faintly heard from the west side.
Gayard was shocked. Could it be that the French cavalry had been defeated?
He loudly urged the police to form a team, but the next moment, he saw more than a dozen cavalry running chaotically from a short distance away, in that direction, seemingly heading into Wavre City.
He hurriedly raised his binoculars and immediately saw that the cavalry were covered in blood and in a miserable state, and the gray-green uniforms were clearly Austrians!
Soon, the rhythmic sound of military drums came from the west, and more and more Austrian soldiers were escaping. Some even ran into the police team in panic and were immediately arrested. members were captured.
More than ten minutes later, densely packed white military uniforms appeared in Gayar's field of vision.
On the flags of the infantrymen were painted a golden iris and a dolphin.
It’s the French Royal Infantry!
The French soldiers formed an extremely long line and swept south of Wavre. Gayard estimated that there were at least four to five thousand people.
On both sides of them, there were large groups of French cavalry wearing bearskin hats, roaring past, driving the nearby Austrian infantry lines forward.
(The end of this volume. A new volume will begin tomorrow, and the era of total war will begin in Europe.)
(End of this chapter)