Chapter 862 Capture Cologne
"The enemy has retreated!"
"Run, occupy the fortress!"
"Follow me, there is a gap on the west side!"
The rapid sound of snare drums sounded from all directions, and several teams of French infantry passed by Lieutenant Gerard one after another, and rushed towards the fortress in front of him in succession.
The hunting team he commanded had already slapped the Austrian cannon in front of him, and the hunting soldiers did not participate in the task of occupying the fortress, and seemed a little idle at this time.
When he was about to order to return to the camp, he suddenly saw several companies dozens of meters away rushing north. But the fortress is on their east side.
Geral has good eyesight—a basic requirement for being a hunter—and he could see the flags in front of the queue at a glance.
"Ninth Infantry Battalion?"
He hurriedly ran to the straggler for a while, and soon found a familiar face in the middle of the team, and waved: "Fericks, what mission are you doing?"
The lieutenant glanced at his company commander first - he was an infantryman, but not as unrestrained as the hunter. Then he turned his head and whispered: "Many Austrians are retreating from the north of the fortress. We are ordered to block the attack."
Geral's eyes lit up immediately, and he turned to wave hard to the members of the hunter team following him: "Hey, let's rest later, go there first!"
The 14 soldiers immediately screamed and rushed to the north with him.
Since the war began, the Hunting Battalion has not had any chance to perform. Previously, the Massena Legion implemented the tactic of luring the enemy and did not dare to beat the enemy too hard, so the Hunting Battalion was hidden. Before they could fire a few shots in the back attack, the Duke of Brunswick shot under heavy siege.
It was not until the Cologne Fortress was besieged that the hunters really had a battle to fight.
But after all, the time was too short, and Geral's team did not make enough military achievements. At this time, everyone was ready to go and was very excited.
Because the hunters had no requirements for the queue, they quickly surpassed the infantry battalion and arrived first to the north of the fortress.
Then Geral saw thousands of defeated soldiers rushing towards the northwest like a tide. There is another fortress close to the Rhine.
The sergeant of the Hunter Squad was hesitant and said to Geral: "There are too many enemies, so let's wait until the infantry comes up before taking action."
They only have 15 people, and the Austrian army only needs one infantry company to charge, and they must all die here.
Seeing that the enemy at the farthest was about to run into the artillery coverage of the fortress on the northwest side, Geral smacked his lips and said decisively: "The Austrians are in chaos and will not organize counterattacks. If it is a man, come with me."
He quickly ran to a thick pine tree, estimated the distance, and raised the August 1790 hunter gun.
With a "bang", the Austrian lieutenant 130 steps away fell from his horse. The soldiers next to him immediately gathered together vigilantly and raised their guns to aim.
But soon there were another series of gunfires, and the other seven people were shot and died immediately.
As expected, as Geral expected, they didn't even know where the enemy was, so they shouted and turned around and ran away.
The Austrian army in front was immediately disturbed by them.
A officer blew his whistle to maintain order, but as several soldiers died in the second round of shooting of French hunters, the chaos became more and more serious.
Geral was excitedly loading ammunition, and while habitually reminding the soldiers: "Blow the bullet with the power of knocking on a walnut, don't be big or small..."
He raised his gun and quickly selected an Austrian like a non-commissioned officer. He was about to pull the trigger, but suddenly noticed that more than a dozen horse-riding people were coming across.
He narrowed his eyes. It can be judged by the exquisite military uniform of the person in charge and the triangle hat with a silver badge on his head. He was a guy with a great military rank.
Even a lieutenant colonel.
Geral hurriedly signaled to his soldiers: "Wait! At ten o'clock, have you seen all the people riding on the opposite side of the horse?" "A little far away..."
"Slide over with me, and then aim at the one in the lead to fight. Let's go!"
After a moment, more than ten people touched their waists 140 steps away from the officers, and raised their guns at the same time under Geral's order.
The Austrian officer was waving his horse whip and shouting at the soldiers loudly, but his figure suddenly disappeared from the horse's back.
A gunshot came not far away.
In an instant, the Austrian army burst into terror. Hundreds of soldiers rushed from the fortress on the northwest side surrounded the officers who were shot, and some people shot aimlessly.
The entire retreating Austrian army was suddenly crowded together, several times more chaotic than before.
"We must have caught a big fish." Geral grinned, but then he saw hundreds of enemy troops rushing towards him and waved his hands back, "Get out of here and run!"
Ten minutes later, the French infantry battalion where Ferrix was located finally arrived, and then he saw a chaotic Austrian army.
The French battalion leader was overjoyed and immediately ordered to unfold the line and prepare for the attack.
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Geral saw him face to face, finally breathed a sigh of relief, panting, "Sir, we just shot a senior officer and came out of the fortress on the northwest side."
The battalion commander raised his telescope when he heard this, and indeed saw people coming out of the fortress in front of him, and there was also chaos near the entrance to the south.
He suddenly felt aroused in his heart and said to the messenger: "Order the whole to be converted into an assault column, and we will directly attack the fortress! "Send someone to contact Major Wassel and request reinforcements. ”
On the northwest side of the Cologne Fortress Group, a brigade of Austrian soldiers came in and out, and people kept shouting: “Lt. Col. Strauss was shot! ”
”Let the grenade battalion come out to respond! "No, retreat to the fortress as soon as possible and be careful of French attacks..."
"Mr. Commander is in danger. Military doctor, haven't the military doctor come yet?"
At this moment, more than a dozen French columns suddenly appeared on the south side of the fortress and rushed towards the entrance at an extremely fast speed.
The Austrian defenders were shocked. Some wanted to close the door, but some tried their best to stop it, because Lieutenant Colonel Strauss had not returned yet, and some people shouted to organize the defense.
But everyone was crowded together like headless flies, and the scene became increasingly chaotic.
Yes, Strauss, who was killed by Geral's squad just now, was the commander of this fortress.
Among the Austrian troops who were retreating here just now was his cousin Major Mark Strauss.
He was worried that something might happen, so he led the team out to respond, but he happened to see the soldiers in chaos, so he went forward and stopped him without thinking.
So it happened to hit Geral's muzzle.
The artillery at the fortress obviously did not react, and it took a long time to fire the first artillery, and the French infantry had already rushed to less than two hundred steps away from the entrance to the fortress.
Geral felt warm when he saw this, and brought people to follow him and began to suppress and shoot the artillery troops above.
(This chapter ends)