Chapter 360 Divide, intersperse, and decisive battle!
Aren't the French supposed to be in the direction of Ghent? Why did they suddenly appear from the eastern suburbs of Brussels? Karl II almost broke his riding whip, but had no choice but to send another regiment to meet the ambushed troops, and sent out a large number of hussars to scout in case the main force was also ambushed.
After Masson raided the Dutch, he received the order from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to return north to Antolfo, so he circled around the west side of Waterloo and maneuvered to the north of the Dutch.
Because Bronckhorst was frightened by the previous attack, after leaving the town, he ordered to maintain an alert formation and move forward carefully. Masson had already completed a large circle and began to send out cavalry to scout the Dutch's position. The Dutch army had just walked less than 8 kilometers.
Northwest of Brussels, next to a small village more than 20 kilometers away from Antolfo, the Guards Corps is resting and recuperating.
They have been marching for two consecutive days, covering nearly 60 kilometers. According to Karl II's marching speed, it would take about another day and a half to get here.
In fact, if Joseph really wanted to attack Antolfo, with the city's defensive strength, it is likely that it would have been occupied by the French army before the Hanoverian army arrived.
But in that case, it would become helping Austria to suppress the rebellion. This is definitely not the result he wants.
In the officer's tent in the middle of the Guards Corps camp, Berthier drew the last circle on the map, wrote a line of notes next to it, put away the pencil and took a long breath.
The intelligence reported by each hussar unit was finally summarized. Joseph on the side looked at the long snake formation connected by circles of different sizes on the map, and couldn't help but smile with satisfaction.
"We have at least three locations that can be used for insertion." He pointed at several points on the map, "But this will also spread our forces."
With the communication methods of the 18th century, the scattered legion could basically be left to its commanders to perform freely. However, with the current depth of the senior officer pool of the Guards Corps, Joseph really could not rest assured.
"Yes, Your Highness." Berthier nodded, after thinking briefly, he pointed to the southeast of Antolfo, where the main force of Karl II was located. "There is an obvious disconnect between the artillery and infantry of the Hanoverians, and there is also a gap northeast of Brussels. The strength of about three regiments was dispersed.
"Perhaps... we can cut in between their rear group and this scattered legion, and at the same time separate the assault force to block their main force in the northwest.
"In this way, the distance between our two intersecting legions will not be too far, which is convenient for command and can support each other."
Joseph carefully looked at the enemy's position on the map and nodded with deep understanding.
Although he himself had the advanced tactical ideas of later generations, when it came to specific combat deployments, officers like Berthier, who had a professional background and had been immersed in the army for more than ten years, were more professional.
He immediately summoned all the staff members of the staff department and officers at the regimental commander level, and quickly formulated a detailed combat plan based on Berthier's ideas.
The Guards Corps, which had just rested for half a day, began to march again. But this is nothing to them - when they were in the police academy, they often practiced for a week in a row, and the final exercises at the end of each year would even last for more than half a month, during which almost all of this high-intensity marching occurred.
Speed is the basis of roundabout tactics!
So even if the commander of another army on the European continent has systematically learned the roundabout tactics, he will be frustrated to find that he cannot implement them at all - his army changes from assembly to reaction, from physical strength to Morale cannot support such a high-intensity mobile combat.
And if you don't move as fast as the enemy, you won't be able to disrupt the enemy's deployment and find opportunities.
At noon the next day, the Guards Corps marched 30 kilometers in a hurry and arrived southeast of Antolfo.
At this time, Karl II was still busy on his way, preparing to enter Antolfo garrison to resist the French army's attack on the city.
After the Guards Corps rested in place for two hours, they began to launch a general attack on the Hanoverian Army, which was in disarray. First, the main force of the entire army quickly cut in from the northwest, separating the legion sent by Karl II to reinforce the Dutch and the main force of the Hanoverian army.
At this point, Karl II was shocked to realize that tens of thousands of French troops were less than 6 kilometers away from him.
And the distance between the head and tail of his troops was more than 5 kilometers...
"Damn it! Are these Frenchies growing out of the ground?!"
He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the lace of his cuffs, tried to calm down, pointed at a tall officer, and said loudly: "Lieutenant Colonel Schmidt, immediately lead the dragoons to the village of Ogchenna to set up a defense line. No one is allowed to take a step back without my order!”
"Yes, Marshal!"
Lieutenant Colonel Schmidt turned around and suddenly became bitter. There were less than two regiments of dragoons in total. How could they be the opponent of the main force of the French army in such a hurry. This was obviously to delay the French army with the lives of his soldiers.
Immediately, Karl II ordered two infantry regiments to pick up the baggage vehicles and artillery of the rear team, and the rest of the troops immediately moved closer to him.
At this time, he still had about 16,000 troops in his hands. As long as he could complete the formation, he could still compete with the French army.
The 6,000 Southern Netherlands Army from Brussels will be able to come for reinforcements tomorrow afternoon. At that time, they can even launch a counterattack against the French army.
However, the development of the battlefield situation was completely different from what he had imagined.
It only took more than an hour for the cavalry artillery of the Guards Corps and the dragoon regiment responsible for covering them to cut through the nearly two-kilometer gap between the main body of the Hanoverian Army and the rear artillery.
Afterwards, at Napoleon's suggestion, the artillery battalion quickly set up positions on the hills to the north, while the dragoons formed an infantry line beside the trees below the hills.
At the same time, the main force of the Guards Corps launched a strong attack on the Hanoverian Army of the three scattered regiments.
Taking advantage of the absolutely superior strength, the four infantry regiments on the front attacked in a column formation, and the cavalry outflanked them from both wings.
This Hanoverian army was still on the march an hour ago. It was informed by a herald sent by Karl II that it was about to fight the French army.
The order given by Karl II was to move closer to the main force as much as possible and not to worry about the Dutch anymore.
But before they could gather their formation, the French queue appeared in their sight.
There was no suspense in the battle - the cavalry of the Guards Corps conducted a feint attack to contain them, and the infantry in the front rushed into the faces of the Hanoverians.
The column quickly expanded into a line formation. Before a salvo could be fired, the Hanoverian army was frightened by the terrifying momentum and collapsed.
(End of chapter)