Chapter 861 The team is dispersed
The behavior of the Austrian soldiers is undoubtedly very stupid to the people in the 21st century, but it seems normal in the era of queuing to shoot.
With the hit rate of the flintlock, you have to shoot hundreds of shots to shoot them through the gaps in the merceration.
So the soldiers are already used to standing carelessly when facing the enemy.
A soldier reacted and shouted loudly: "Maybe it's a hunter!"
The soldiers of Zimmerman Company were about to squat down to avoid him, but someone retorted: "It must not be. I didn't see their hammer just now."
The hunter gun of this era, that is, the rifled rifle, is extremely difficult to load. You have to smash it hard with a hammer to send the gun into the barrel.
The sergeant next to him also shook his head and said, "The hunter's fire speed cannot be so fast."
After their company commander was shot, a second round of gun bullets came in less than 20 seconds. Normally, it takes at least 40 seconds to load the hunter gun.
The sergeant said that, and then lay down on the mercedes again, trying to look through the truth.
Then the French hunters won a killing merit as they wished.
The Austrian lieutenant in the artillery position next to him trotted over and waved his hand hard to order: "Squat down, squat down!"
He was still a little late, and five more soldiers were hit by the bullets shot from the fortress.
In just three or four minutes, Zimmerman Company lost 36 people.
The lieutenant shouted: "Didn't your lord tell you the latest doctrine? Stay away from the cliff, don't stand in the open place, try to squat down!"
The soldiers looked at Company Commander Zimmerman who was lying in a pool of blood.
Someone shouted, "The company commander has never mentioned it...but why do you do this?"
"The French are equipped with a new gun that can accurately shoot us from a hundred steps away!"
"Is this true?"
"Idiot! Of course it is true." The lieutenant shouted, "Otherwise, why are the death rate of artillery soldiers so high?!"
From the second day after the French siege of Cologne, artillery soldiers on the fortress, especially those on the outermost defense line, had more than 200 casualties every day.
You must know that unless you encounter a cavalry raid, you will not be able to die so many artillery soldiers after a battle.
This time the French hunters will rush to the fortress, use the dead end of the cannon to snipe the gunner with the latest August 1790 rifled rifle.
Because of the fire hat firing method, the range of the new gun is farther than that of ordinary hunter guns, making it difficult for the Austrian army to form an effective counterattack against them.
The Austrian army was beaten so much that it was so depressed that it sent a large group of infantry out of the fortress to drive away the French hunters.
But the French cannons had been waiting behind the hunters.
As long as the Austrian infantry emerges, the cannons will greet them with grape bullets.
After doing this several times, the Austrian infantry suffered heavy casualties, so they had to issue temporary regulations requiring the artillery to squat down as much as possible to avoid the hunters on the opposite side.
But in this way, the shooting efficiency of the cannon is so low that it is terrible.
The French army had more cannons than the Cologne defenders - Massena mobilized all the Royal Artillery Battalion and the cannons seized in previous battles around Cologne, with more than 200 - so it almost turned into one-way artillery suppression.
After only 12 days of siege, the French army captured one of the four main stops in Cologne, and the second one was already crumbling.
You should know that these fortress groups rely on each other. As long as one of them is compromised, there will be a blind spot in firepower, and the difficulty of attacking the remaining few will be greatly reduced.
The soldiers of Zimmerman Company were already pale in their faces. Thinking of their actions that they looked out from the cliff just now, they were simply killing them. Then they suddenly understood why they were allowed an infantry company to operate the cannon.
I'm afraid the artillery has been almost shot and killed by French hunters...
Thinking of this, they couldn't help but shrink their bodies tighter.
Until the sky darkened, the 18-pound cannon fired a single shell.
Dawn the next day.
A Austrian major came to the artillery position under the charge of Zimmermann Company - and only when the light was dim did these officers dare to appear on the fortress.
"You guys, you've performed well!" The major scanned the listless soldiers and exclaimed, "We have passed the most dangerous stage.
"The 20,000 reinforcements from Britain have landed in Hamburg and will arrive here in half a month. "General Blüchel's troops have also completed rest and may have arrived earlier than the British. "You must have heard of him. Yes, it is the Prussian general who successfully broke through the enemy's defense line under the heavy siege of the French army and brought the army back to the east coast of the Rhine! "At that time, our army's strength will reach more than 60,000, and the French will always stop in front of the Cologne Fortress! "
Yes, now the coalition forces have regarded it as a rare victory to be able to block the French offensive.
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Seeing the courage reappeared in the soldiers' eyes, the Austrian major clapped his hands with satisfaction and pointed at the cannons around: "Let the French guys see how you..."
As soon as he was halfway through, his staff officer trotted over in panic and whispered quickly in his ear.
The major immediately widened his eyes and said in a lost voice: "What? Prussia withdrew from the anti-French alliance..."
He did not care about the panicked soldiers and turned around and ran towards the fortress's headquarters.
In less than an hour, the incident of Prussia and France reaching an armistice agreement spread, and the entire Cologne Fortress was full of grief.
Although there was no Prussian soldier here, the defenders' firepower suddenly weakened by several levels due to this news.
The major at the bottom of the fortress finally saw the report he had just sent.
The printed on it is: Prussia officially announced its withdrawal from the anti-French alliance the day before yesterday and withdrew all its troops back to its homeland.
Prussia recognized France's rule over the Gelden region and recalled all administrative officials there within a month.
Prussia will no longer adopt any hostile policy toward France...
While France promised to give up war reparations and release all Prussian prisoners, but not important officers...
No war reparations are not that Joseph is generous, it is entirely because Prussia cannot squeeze out any oil and water. Forced claims will only make the Prussians carve a deep hatred for France in their hearts.
"These treacherous Prussian miscellaneous!"
The major slapped the papers on the table in anger and roared: "Even without them, we can still defend Cologne!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard the gunshots on the fortress gathered.
A staff member pushed open the door and broke in. He said in a qi: "French, the French have occupied the Central Dike!"
The Central Dike is the second wall of the fortress and the strongest one.
Although there is a line of defense on the inside, because of the narrow space, it can't last long under the bombardment of cannons.
The major snatched the gate and had a secret passage for him to move to the north side of the fortress and go to another fortress to continue fighting.
(This chapter ends)