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Chapter 1254: The Valiant Augereau

East of Weimar, hundreds of French Skirmishers were engaged in desultory harassment fire.

The Prussians opposite knew this wasn't the main battlefield and returned fire just as sluggishly.

Prussian cannons on the nearby high ground didn't even bother to glance their way, instead remaining focused on firing at the main French forces concentrating their attack on the central defense line.

At half past two in the afternoon, the French Skirmishers, apparently bored, suddenly pulled back to both flanks.

Prussian soldiers defending the left flank were about to let out a sigh of relief when they vaguely saw a large swathe of white figures appearing in the distance.

Just minutes later, accompanied by dense drumbeats and the rhythmic tramp of boots, French columns had advanced to over 150 meters from the Prussian defense line.

Prussian officers hastily ordered their soldiers to maintain formation and prepare to fire.

Augereau, dismounted, personally followed one of the columns, jogging forward to meet the enemy.

Soon after, the Prussians' rifles roared.

A dense volley swept through, and some in the French column's front ranks fell, hit by bullets. Yet, others immediately stepped up to fill their places, the officers' commands and soldiers' footfalls remaining as precise as clockwork.

The Prussians only had a chance for four volleys before dozens of columns had advanced to about 40 meters in front of them.

Augereau raised his saber and bellowed, "Whole army, form line formation!"

The drumbeat shifted in rhythm, and nearly three thousand soldiers turned with practiced ease, taking their respective positions in under half a minute.

Indeed, the soldiers in the two regiments Augereau had chosen were largely graduates of the Paris Military Technology School, and nearly half had participated in the Luxembourg campaign a few years prior, making them the absolute elite of the French army.

Augereau pointed his saber forward and shouted, "Ready—"

The company officers immediately repeated his command. The French soldiers, now in a line formation, simultaneously raised their rifles.

"Aim—"

"Fire—"

A flash of dense muzzle fire erupted, and the Prussian defense line immediately grew ragged. The ferocious firepower stunned the rear ranks of soldiers, momentarily leaving them afraid to step forward and fill the gaps.

Augereau deliberately employed the line formation volley tactic, despite its higher casualty risk, to unleash maximum firepower and tear open a breach for Murat.

After weathering a round of Prussian counterfire, Augereau surged forward about ten paces, and the entire French line formation immediately followed, stepping over the bodies of fallen comrades.

"Fire—"

With the French line formation's second close-range volley, hundreds of Prussian soldiers were instantly knocked to the ground by Minié Balls. The Prussian commander on the front lines had no choice but to order the second line of infantry to advance and take their place.

It was only then that the Prussian artillery finally reacted, hastily swiveling their cannons toward their own left flank.

After the Prussian infantry line formation's volley, Augereau took a few more steps forward, only to suddenly hear the roar of cannons in the distance.

Two soldiers beside him were swept by a dark shadow, and more than half of their bodies vanished in an instant.

Augereau's aide-de-camp was horrified, rushing forward to tackle him to the ground.

"Let go of me, that's an order!" Augereau struggled to his feet, vigorously waving his hand at the soldiers on either side and shouting, "In the name of the Crown Prince! Crush the enemy!"

This was a rallying cry that ignited every veteran in the Guards Corps.

The entire line formation continued to follow Augereau forward, charging to within less than 25 meters of the Prussian defense line, completely ignoring the hail of bullets, shouting "In the name of the Crown Prince!" and firing a volley.

The second Prussian infantry line formation, having just moved up to reinforce, was still unstable when it was barraged and recoiled backward.

Under such dense and accurate firepower, even the "King's inspiration" had no effect whatsoever.

Augereau quickly spotted a gap about ten meters wide in the Prussian defense line, pointed to it, and declared, "Over here! Follow me, Firepower Division!"

The so-called "Firepower Division" was a tactic of concentrating forces in a narrow area to prevent the enemy's rear detachments from quickly regrouping. Augereau's objective from the outset was to create an opening for the cavalry to break through.

Minutes later, Augereau led over 400 soldiers to form a six-row deep formation at the gap in the enemy's infantry line, using a two-row continuous firing method to maximize firepower and further widen the breach.

However, such a concentrated formation also became an ideal target for enemy cannons, and several cannonballs immediately shrieked through the air.

The French ranks were struck by two of these iron spheres, and more than a dozen men were instantly torn to shreds.

"Hold steady, everyone!" Augereau yelled, his eyes bloodshot, then turned to his adjutant and commanded, "Tell Murat to move!"

"Yes, General!"

Behind them, a Shapoor signal cart transmitted a series of commands to the southwest, and a few minutes later, Murat appeared not far from Augereau with nearly a thousand cavalrymen.

Augereau glanced at the gap in the Prussian defense line, now sixty to seventy meters wide, and shouted to the officer beside him, "Break off to the flanks! Maintain covering fire!"

Immediately, the French multi-layered line formation turned to either side, clearing the path directly in front of the breach.

Over 300 French Cuirassiers, wearing long-brimmed iron helmets adorned with red feathers and gleaming steel cuirasses embellished with brass, were the first to surge through the infantry ranks, their sabers flashing as they cleaved into the enemy's defense line.

Behind them came 600 Hussars, wearing cylindrical shakos and uniforms with frogged braiding. They had their sabers sheathed at their saddles, each holding a Joseph 1797 Model Revolver.

Prussian officers immediately spotted this cavalry unit and desperately ordered their soldiers to fire upon them.

But there were not many Prussian soldiers near the gap, and most of the bullets they fired merely struck the three-millimeter-thick steel cuirasses of the leading Cuirassiers, leaving only small dents.

The Cuirassiers thundered through the breach, followed closely by the Hussars, who returned fire with their revolvers at the enemy infantry.

A continuous and dense hail of bullets instantly forced the few remaining resisting Prussian soldiers to fall back repeatedly.

Murat saw no third line formation of enemy troops ahead and immediately felt a sense of relief—in truth, William III's army at Weimar numbered only just over 14,000 men. Under the fierce assault of Augereau's Corps, all of them had long since been committed to the defense line. The left flank, where the fighting hadn't been as intense previously, had no reserves prepared at all.

Murat quickly oriented himself, pointed his saber towards Weimar's southern suburbs, and declared, "Maintain formation, follow me!"

On the high ground to the north, Prussian Commander-in-Chief Marshal Möllendorf watched the surging French cavalry through his telescope, his face instantly turning ashen.

He had no reserves left. His cavalry units were still locked in combat with the French on the right flank; in less than half an hour, the French cavalry would overrun his command post.

He then noticed that the French did not seem to be heading directly towards his position.

'Had the French not discovered the location of his command post?'

He looked up at the hot air balloon floating in the distant sky, his pupils suddenly constricting. He turned to gaze at the distant tents and exclaimed, "No, they're heading for His Majesty!"