Napoleon II Reborn

Chapter 102: Preparations before the counterattack

"Grand Duke, General Kleiski has occupied the first line of defense of the French army?" A general reported to Nicholas with a happy face.

"What, really?" Nicholas couldn't believe that Kutuzov's defense line that Kutuzov hadn't captured for several days was captured by Kleiski in less than a day. After all, having partnered with Kutuzov for many years, he is still very aware of his abilities.

"Of course it's true, Grand Duke. I've verified the battle report that just came back from the front line, and it's true. Moreover, General Kleinski's losses are still very small. It seems that General Kleinski is indeed a fierce general." Ah! It really is a wise decision for the Grand Duke to take him under his banner." Taking advantage of this opportunity, the general flattered Nicholas.

After hearing that it was indeed Kleiski who occupied the French defense line, Nicholas was overjoyed and said excitedly: "Send the good news to the Tsar immediately, saying that General Kleiski has lived up to expectations and has broken through the French defense line. But occupying Frankfurt and defeating the French army is just around the corner.” Nicholas really had a good plan, not only did he ask for credit for Kleiski, but also made Kleiski feel grateful to him and become more loyal to him. At the same time, he also showed his ability to know and employ people in front of the Tsar, which also greatly belittled Kutuzov. Kutuzov stormed for several days, lost troops and lost generals but achieved nothing, and Nicholas won such a big victory in his first attack after taking office. Isn't this enough to show that his ability is far superior to Kutuzov's? Husband?

That general is also a person with an exquisite mind, how could he not understand what Nicholas meant? It's another big sycophant to make you Gulapai comfortable. And it was also written in the victory report to the Tsar: Under the wise command of Grand Duke Nicholas, General Kleinsky led 60,000 Russian troops, and after fierce fighting, they captured the enemy's first line of defense. Now that Frankfurt is completely exposed to our army, our army will quickly occupy it. I believe that under the leadership of His Majesty the Tsar and Grand Duke Nicholas, defeating the hateful French will be just around the corner.

The tsar, who knew nothing about the front line, was also overjoyed when he received this good news, and ordered General Kleiski to be promoted to lieutenant general in recognition of his meritorious service. But before the promotion order could be issued, news came that the Russian army was defeated and almost wiped out.

In order to achieve the great goal of occupying Frankfurt and defeating the French army as soon as possible, Nicholas ordered Kleinsky to launch a fierce attack on the French army. And Kleinsky faithfully carried out this order. As a result, the Russian army was pushed into the abyss of **** by them.

Under Kleiski's order, 50,000 Russian troops launched a violent attack on the second line of defense in front of Frankfurt. This time he did not disperse his forces, but devoted them all to the attack on the 88th Army. Compared with Nicholas' order, he was to occupy Frankfurt. However, on their way to attack, they were already planted with landmines by the French army. The second line of defense and the first line of defense are only a little over a kilometer, but the French army planted more than 3,000 mines along this section of the road.

Under the dense offensive formation of the Russian army, the terrifying lethality of the landmines was fully demonstrated. Explosions sounded one after another in the Russian army's queue. Every mine exploded would take the lives of seven or eight people, and at the same time there were the same number of seriously injured people. After only advancing 500 meters, the Russian army suffered tens of thousands of casualties, and their morale was low. They did not have the fighting spirit they had when they first occupied the first line of defense of the French army. As a last resort, Kleinski had to order a temporary suspension of the attack, thinking hard about how to crack the French minefields.

In the end, a young officer proposed to use a horse to step on landmines, and Kleinski, who had no other options, had to agree. From the horses of the remaining 16,000 Cossack cavalry, 5,000 horses that were injured or had other problems were selected to form a team to break the formation, and the 5,000 cavalry were reduced to infantry.

Driven by the soldiers' leather whips, the war horses rushed into the minefields, stepping on landmines one after another. The wailing of the horses and the explosion of the landmines were mixed together. The Cossack cavalrymen who were forced to give up their horses all had tears in their eyes, and Kleiski's eyes were also a little moist. Because he is also a cavalryman, and the war horse is the cavalryman's second life and their partner. But now, they have to do something to abandon their partners, which makes them feel very uncomfortable. Similarly, this hatred was also recorded on the 88th Army headed by Xiao Jie. Many Russian troops vowed to capture Xiao Jie, drag him to death with horses, and avenge their dead horses. In the end, after sacrificing 5,000 horses, the Russian army finally opened up a safe passage about one kilometer wide.

Xiao Jie didn't expect that the Russian army would use this trick to crack his minefields, so he couldn't help telling Monty, the commander of the 1st regiment: "Monty, the enemy is coming fiercely? You can't be careless, you must defend me." Good line of defense."

"Don't worry, Your Royal Highness, with me around, they won't cross the second line of defense. Besides, they just opened up a passage with a width of one kilometer. As long as I mobilize enough heavy machine guns and The mortars are guarding there, are you afraid that they will break through the line of defense? No matter how many come, they will just die." Monty said very confidently.

Xiao Jie also knew that Monty was telling the truth, but he was afraid that he would be careless, so he reminded him.

As the saying goes, mourning soldiers must win. But with cannons bombarding above and heavy machine guns blocking below, can the underdogs still win? the answer is negative.

The Russian army's angry blow was quickly defeated by the joint attack of the Artillery Regiment of the 88th Army, the Heavy Artillery Battalion and the 1st Regiment. In just one hour, more than 30,000 people were killed. And not even one rushed to the French position, and the most elite Cossack cavalry of the Russian army were all lost in this attack. The French army had no casualties at all, except for an artilleryman who twisted his foot while carrying a shell.

Kleiski lost his temper after being beaten, and launched two more attacks without success. Instead, he suffered a large number of soldiers. After that, he finally realized the gap with the French army. The attack was stopped, and Nicholas was asked for help.

Nicholas was still waiting for Kleiski to occupy Frankfurt, but what he did not expect was the news of a request for assistance. Nicholas comforted himself that victory or defeat is a common matter in military affairs, and Kleisky will definitely succeed, after all, he has already had a precedent of success. So he generously gave Kleiski 50,000 reinforcements. At the same time, people gave Klesky his expectations.

Kleiski had no choice but to bite the bullet and launch another attack, but the final result was still failure and heavy losses. Nicholas also realized the seriousness of the problem. He replaced Kleiski's command position and personally commanded the remaining 190,000 Russian troops to launch an attack on the French army.

The cunning Nicholas also found out that it is unwise to head-on with the 88th Army, so he only sent 50,000 people to contain the 88th Army, and the rest of the troops joined the attack on the Guards. For a time, the pressure on Davout increased sharply, and the Russian army, relying on its large numbers, broke through its position several times, causing heavy casualties. As a last resort, Xiao Jie had no choice but to send all the reserves in his hands to the Guards. However, since the main component of the reserve team is the soldiers of the Rhine Army, their combat effectiveness is generally not high, and most of them are lower than the Russian army. Therefore, under the attack of the superior force of the Russian army, the Guards Corps is still retreating steadily.

In order to reduce the pressure on the Guards Corps, the 88th Corps voluntarily abandoned the second line of defense and retreated to the third line of defense, attracting the attention of the Russian army. Nicholas was really fooled, gave up the attack on the Guards, and refocused the attack on the 88th Army. After all, occupying Frankfurt, the temptation to capture the French Crown Prince alive is far greater than defeating the Guards. The front line finally stabilized, and the Russian army launched several attacks but could not break through the French defense line. This situation continued until November 7, when the Russian army had only 130,000 people left, and there were no cavalry. On the other hand, the French army has secretly assembled all its forces, and is waiting to give the Russian army a final fatal blow.

On November 2, the Second Army of Marmont and the Third Army of Randz finally surrounded more than 20,000 people of Blücher and the Duke of Weimar in Lubeck. Originally, Blücher and the Duke of Weimar planned to flee to Denmark, but the Danish king refused to allow them to enter because of the fear of Napoleon. In the end, Blücher and the Duke of Weimar were defeated by the dominant French army. They were either killed or captured, and Blücher and the Duke of Weimar were also among the prisoners.

After the victory in Lubeck, Napoleon ordered Marmont's Second Army to enter the Netherlands to fight against the British with Soult, while Lanz's Third Army secretly drove to Frankfurt to accept the command of Xiao Jie , to participate in the upcoming counterattack against the Russian army.

At this time, the Sixth Army also completed their combat missions, and they also received orders to secretly march into the Frankfurt area ~lightnovelpub.net~ to prepare for a counterattack against the Russian army.

At the same time, in order to ensure the advantage over the Russian army, Napoleon also ordered the first and fourth armies attacking Königsberg to stop attacking, leaving the first army to continue to maintain pressure on the remaining Prussian troops, and the fourth army secretly marched in. Go to the front line of Frankfurt, ready to counterattack the Russian army. The Prussian remnant army has long suffered heavy losses under the blows of the First Army and Fourth Army. The current number of troops has dropped to less than 70,000, and they can only retreat in the Königsberg area, no longer posing a threat to the French army. .

By November 7th, Xiao Jie had accumulated enough strength. Under him there was already the Guards Corps, the 3rd Corps. 4th Corps, 5th Corps, 6th Corps, 88th Corps and Cavalry Corps. While each legion suffered losses to one degree or another, none was at full strength. But assembled, the total force still reached as many as 210,000.

Under such circumstances, Xiao Jie, who had endured for so many days, finally began to prepare for the final fatal blow to the Russian army.

(555555, Xiaoyu has four classes in the morning, four classes in the afternoon, and has to go to the experimental class in the evening, and he doesn't finish school until 9:30 in the evening. After returning home, hurry up and code a chapter, please support)( To be continued,)