At 1:34, after receiving the order, Torosidis and his troops showed amazing courage and sacrifice.

Knowing that they would die if they walked on, but in the harsh terrain, the soldiers still braved the fierce gunfire from the French army on the other side and waded forward through the muddy swamp. The French infantry who had been well prepared were waiting for them.

A volley of musket fire was fired at the attacking Imperial infantry lines from the other side.

Many officers and soldiers were shot and killed, but they opened the way to the other side. Yes, with their corpses, the following infantry stepped on the corpses of the fallen infantry in front, speeding up the advance to the other side.

At the same time, as the infantry advanced, the cavalry's attack horn also sounded at the same time.

Under the cover of artillery, the cavalry also launched charges from all directions towards the French army behind the swamp. The French army probably did not expect that the cavalry would follow suit and commit suicide, so they were stunned. However, they quickly reacted and used muskets and artillery.

Shoot at the attacking cavalry.

The cavalry were shot one after another, fell off their horses, and died immediately. However, at this time, the imperial cavalry still showed heroic and fearless fighting spirit. While the infantry dispersed the firepower, they were still struggling to rush to the other side and rush up to the other side.

The cavalry on land regrouped and rushed into the infantry and artillery, killing the enemy without mercy.

While the central front was still fighting fiercely, the Duke of Luxembourg's vanguard troops came to the rescue and hit the muzzle of the gun. The sound of artillery was heard one after another. I used the 27th Spartan Legion and 60 cavalry artillery to block the road of the Duke of Luxembourg's vanguard troops from advancing to the battlefield.

Suddenly, the French cavalry fell off their horses one after another under the bombardment of artillery fire, leaving their spears and sabers useless.

The survivors launched a desperate charge and were intercepted by the two cavalry regiments I originally sent. Although the two cavalry regiments swayed in front of the French army on the west flank and there were no more 4,000 people, they were still more hasty than this one.

The French troops that came out were larger in number. The two sides fought in the open space. This cavalry regiment entangled the Duke of Luxembourg's cavalry, and the remaining part then attacked the French artillery in the rear.

It was impossible for the artillery that had not even been set up to cause any damage to the cavalry, and the battle situation was completely one-sided.

We defeated this group of French troops cleanly and successfully, and we found the prisoners.

From the prisoners' mouths, we learned that the Luxembourg army deployed on the west side of Sviatos was on its way. In addition to this vanguard force of 2,000 cavalry and 5 artillery companies, there were more than 20,000 infantry and about

2,000 cavalry and a corresponding number of artillery.

"I almost let the Duke of Vendôme defeat the few with more troops!" I said with lingering fear at this time.

"The Duke of Vendôme is much better than the Duke of Marsin!" Alexander mentioned another person.

The short-lived victory on the west wing was just a moderate fight. On the frontal battlefield, the French infantry advanced very quickly in dense columns. Our artillery fired fiercely, knocking down the huddled French columns.

One after another, these elite French infantrymen still pushed forward tenaciously despite the hail of bullets, constantly squeezing the space of Governor Ventra.

At this moment, cheers erupted from our central position, and we knew without even thinking that it was our troops who had captured that damn swamp.

But this is not the time when we are happy. The swamp seriously delayed our marching speed. In any case, the Duke of Vendôme very successfully used the geographical advantage to disintegrate our numerical advantage. Not only that. Our side

The casualties are probably very high.

The pieces of paper handed over to me by the ordering soldiers included military status updates and the rest were casualty reports of each unit.

22. The 33rd, 27th, 19th and 16th Spartan legions, except for the 33rd Spartan legion which has not moved and the 27th legion which has been on standby, the other three legions have their own

There were varying degrees of losses. The 19th Spartan Legion, which was responsible for the main attack on the central position on the front line, suffered the heaviest casualties, suffering at least one-third of its casualties. The 16th Spartan Legion should have suffered more than half of its casualties.

As for the newly recruited legions, Ventra has already said that the two legions collapsed. These two legions are destined to be reorganized and will not come back. More than 10,000 people are missing. The four legions I arranged to attack and

The three regiments that originally led the battle suffered more than 10,000 casualties. As for the French, their center side should have suffered about 10,000 casualties. The west wing was definitely much lighter than this number. Come on, this battle has just been fought.

Half, the casualty ratio between us and the French is almost two to one!

Likewise, at this point in the war, it was already clear to me what plot the Duke of Vendôme was playing.

Setting the battlefield at Holabrunn, a relatively fair place for everyone, apart from paralyzing us and making us think that the Duke of Vendôme wants to fight openly, in fact, the real intention of the Duke of Vendôme is probably still unbeatable.

Just run away, and hit hard after being beaten.

Holabrunn seems to be a very fair place for both of us, but in fact, the Duke Vendôme's strategy around the swamp is destined to make us suffer a lot. He used the swamp to divide my army into two parts, that is,

On the frontal central front and the western flank front, part of our troops on the central front struck hard, but failed to say anything. They had to endure the French artillery fire in the swamp, which seriously slowed down our marching speed and created a great opportunity for the French army in the swamp.

Wounding our troops hard on the West Wing created time.

Okay, it's the flank again.

How many times in history have there been cases where the entire front was defeated due to flank retreat and collapse?

One of the two battles that determined the pinnacle of Alexander's life was the Battle of Gaugamela. According to legend, 50,000 people fought against a Persian army of one million. Well, it was the Persians who were looking for death. Obviously there were not that many people, only two at most.

One hundred thousand people were like this, but they just put up a million people formation, and Alexander made a hole in the flank, and then the whole line collapsed.

The same happened in the other battle of Issus. The flanks were still blown up, and then the entire Persian line collapsed.

Hannibal, who swept through Rome that year, also had problems on his flanks in the final battle, which caused the central front to be connected, causing Carthage to collapse.

Well, having said so much, what is the function of this flank that so many famous generals and emperors like to play?

Like the infantry phalanx of ancient Rome and the battle examples of the Middle Ages in Western Europe, I, a musketeer general in the 18th century, can't say much about it, but based on Alexander's flank issues during that period, I can talk about it.

After all, the concept of infantry line fighting that came up with this idea evolved from the Alexander Pike Infantry Phalanx and the Macedonian Phalanx.

As we all know, Alexander's Macedonian phalanx is a torrent of steel with countless long spears piled up on the front. The frontal offensive is sharp and unmatched. If a soldier falls, another soldier will follow up. The phalanx

The existence of the phalanx maintains the density of spears for a certain period of time and extends the battery life of the phalanx. When the enemy wants to break through the phalanx, in addition to long-range attacks and using longer spears to attack

However, the six-meter spear seems to be the limit that humans can control. If you only use long-range troops, you will be crushed by the cavalry. Therefore, facing a defense line made of dense spears, it is difficult to break through head-on.

, if operated properly, the Macedonian Phalanx can be like a perpetual motion machine, constantly crushing the enemy's team. However, another well-known thing is that the sides of the Macedonian Phalanx are very fragile.

If the Macedonian Phalanx is bullied on the flank, then the Macedonian Phalanx will be completely miserable.

Why?

Because every inch is long and every inch is dangerous.

Of course, this is also because the spears are placed on the front, and the spear heads of the Macedonian phalanx are used to kill enemies. This also means that there are no spears on the sides of the Macedonian phalanx. Without spears, there is no ability to protect

Their flanks, at least if they don't adjust the battle direction in time, can really

The spear head cannot be pointed at the enemy. The feared Sarisha spear only has a wooden pole. In those years, even the Shaolin Temple did not come out, let alone expect these Greek guys to master the Shaolin Temple's crazy magic stick technique "Ada Ada"

"Something like that, or forming the Shaolin Temple's Eighteen-stick Monk Formation or something.

So at this time, the soldiers have only two choices. Put down the spear and draw the short sword. The result is that the phalanx collapses and you have a half chance of being hacked to death. If you don't put the spear, you will be hacked to death, and then let the enemy be killed by your own people.

Stabbed to death, but there is still a high chance that the phalanx will collapse as a result.

When one Macedonian phalanx is destroyed, the side of the other Macedonian phalanx is exposed, and then...

Now we know the importance of the flank, which is the weakness and the cover. The volley fire developed from the Macedonian Phalanx still has the weaknesses of the Macedonian Phalanx in BC.

Think about it, when your enemy breaks through the side of you and hits you with hundreds of guns in a line, but you can only use three or four guns on the side of the line to fight back, then think about what you are doing for

Expand the same width and adjust the troops. During this period, you have to endure the frustration of enemy shooting and watch the soldiers fall one by one. And I am afraid that by the time you finish adjusting, all your soldiers will be dead.

In a sense, the current queuing to kill is more serious than the flanking in the Macedonian era, because the depth of a Macedonian phalanx back then was deeper than the current infantry line. However, after thousands of years of war, now we

But at least we know how to use our wisdom to

Protect my weaknesses, and the key to this weakness is cavalry. More cavalry means that we can not only protect our weaknesses, but also allocate troops to attack the enemy's weaknesses, and this is why I keep pressing
Chapter completed!