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Chapter 449: An Easy Victory

Driesen, standing on a high ground, watched as his infantry line formation suddenly collapsed before barely engaging the enemy. Infuriated, he slammed his telescope to the ground.

'They are an absolute disgrace to the Royal Guards Corps!' he fumed.

He then remembered his grenadier regiments were still holding, and quickly told a messenger, "Order Boll and Carus's regiments to push forward and reinforce the grenadiers!"

These two regiments were his reserves. In his opinion, the recent unexpected collapse must have been due to incompetent command from Fain's legion. He believed that as long as they could stabilize the situation with the grenadier regiments at their core, they could still delay the enemy.

Soon, the recently re-formed Prussian reserves began to advance. They had been positioned approximately 180 meters behind the first infantry line formation, and would only need about ten minutes to fill the gap.

This second line formation also served another purpose: to block soldiers attempting to flee after the front line collapsed.

In wars of this era, the lethality of weapons was quite limited—ten thousand flintlock muskets firing in unison might only kill a hundred or so men. Most of the time, defeat came when morale broke first, causing soldiers to abandon their ranks. Thus, as long as soldiers could be made to hold their positions, the fight could continue.

This time, however, the fleeing soldiers from the front seemed utterly terrified, ignoring the bayonets of the reserves as they continued to scramble backward.

Many of them were yelling incoherently:

"Run, they're devils!"

"Only God can kill them!"

This caused the reserve soldiers to hesitate, until an officer shot several fleeing soldiers and personally led the charge at the very front, barely stabilizing the situation.

But before Boll and Carus's two regiments could fill the gap in the front infantry line, the two grenadier regiments also began to disperse.

There was simply no helping it; the combat power of these Guards Corps cadets was too formidable. They completely overwhelmed the Prussians in terms of loading, firing, formation discipline, and morale.

Especially with the protection of bulletproof inserts this time, the cadets were incredibly exhilarated, charging to within 18 meters of the Prussians and breaking them entirely with a single volley.

In reality, at such close range, the bulletproof inserts could no longer offer effective protection. However, the Prussians were unable to maintain a synchronized volley, and their sporadic firing caused negligible damage.

Driesen took a staff officer's telescope and saw his reserves, barely having engaged the enemy, fleeing alongside the grenadier regiments.

His face turned ashen as he glanced at his pocket watch. The French had shattered his temporary defensive line in less than half an hour.

He knew very well that his main forces were certainly still in disarray. Engaging the well-ordered French army in such a state would only lead to a rout.

Driesen sighed in resignation. Since Frederick the Great's death, the Prussian army's training standards had steadily declined. He never imagined that even the highly elite Royal Guards Corps would come to this.

Hearing the French gunfire drawing nearer, he hastily wheeled his horse to retreat, then turned to a messenger and declared, "Order Auguste's legion to immediately return to Liegnitz. Other legions are to retreat northward in an orderly fashion, establishing staggered defenses."

Auguste's legion was originally tasked with covering the retreat; being the furthest from the French forces, they should have a chance to escape. The other units could only buy time as best they could; with luck, some might still manage to get away.

Yes, Driesen had decided to abandon resistance.

He suddenly recalled how, two months prior, he had discussed with Krokov how Charles II had been easily defeated by the French in Luxembourg. At the time, they had both mocked the Hanoverians as useless.

Now, it seemed, perhaps the Hanoverian army wasn't so terrible; it was simply that the French were too strong...

Upon receiving the order for a staggered withdrawal, Colonel Duden immediately instructed his officers to abandon all baggage trains and have the soldiers assemble and form ranks on the eastern slope.

His troops were in the southernmost position, making retreat impossible. For now, they could only try to buy time for the other legions.

However, shortly after his orders were issued, volleys of cannon fire erupted from the east.

His heart immediately tightened. 'Didn't General Driesen say the main French forces were to the southwest? What's with all these cannons?'

Duden's unformed troops were bombarded point-blank by the cannons and immediately fell into chaos, fleeing towards the Prussian units further north in search of cover.

The Guards Corps horse artillery hadn't expected such an easy success either.

They had previously launched a surprise attack on the Prussian vanguard, initially just to delay the enemy and facilitate an infantry assault on the Prussian flank.

Unexpectedly, Brecht's legion of nearly 4,000 Prussian soldiers was routed after a few volleys from their 10 Six-Pounder Cannons, combined with some harassment from the hussars.

The original plan for the horse artillery commander was to return and link up with the main Guards Corps forces. However, Major Napoleon suggested continuing to approach the Prussian army's center for a surprise attack, to support the infantry's decisive engagement.

Ultimately, Napoleon persuaded his superior. The horse artillery, under the cover of 400 hussars, used its mobility to bypass the fleeing Brecht's legion and arrived east of Driesen's main legion first.

They then discovered that the Prussians had actually begun to retreat.

The horse artillery, of course, showed no mercy to the enemy and immediately commenced bombardment.

By the time the main Guards Corps infantry swiftly cleared Fain's legion and rushed north several kilometers without pause, they found no trace of Driesen's main legion. All that remained were enemy corpses and some Prussian soldiers who hadn't managed to escape.

Soon, several rangers left behind for liaison reported to Berthier that the horse artillery had already broken the Prussian defensive line and, with the hussars, were pursuing the enemy northward.

Berthier's eyelid twitched. 'The horse artillery, tasked with harassment, numbered fewer than 300 men, with 10 Six-Pounder Cannons, and 400 hussars for cover. How could they possibly be chasing a routed Prussian army of nearly 20,000 soldiers?!'

He hastily conferred with several staff officers, ordering the main infantry force to move north at maximum speed to provide support, while also sending a messenger to recall the horse artillery.

After all, the Prussian army was simply too numerous. If they rallied and counterattacked, the horse artillery could very well face annihilation.

An hour and a half later, Joseph also arrived at Driesen's former command post. The battlefield situation was still quite chaotic, and Berthier, fearing unforeseen incidents, had strongly urged Joseph and his staff to remain further back until the enemy forces were confirmed to be cleared before allowing him to come here.

"Your Highness, our vanguard has currently pursued the enemy to the vicinity of Jägerluf village," Berthier reported to him. "And Brecht's legion, which fled towards Breslau, has also been overtaken by the ranger battalion."