(Chapter to)

"Your Excellency, Chief of the General Staff, the French army aggressively attacked our defense line. The current defense line has been breached across the board, and the regiments have suffered heavy losses. Please retreat." A young officer rushed into Clausewitz's office and reported.

"What?" Clausewitz was taken aback. Then there was only a bang, and the cup in Clausewitz's hand fell to the ground and shattered. "What's going on? When did the French start to attack? Why were all the defenses breached?" Clausewitz asked anxiously.

The young officer quickly replied: "Your Excellency, it is like this. At 4 o'clock in the morning today, the French 2nd Army and 3rd Army launched a sudden attack on our defense line, and our army was not prepared at all. The front lines only lasted for two hours. Destroyed. The legions are now suffering heavy losses and request to retreat."

"No, order the legions not to take a step back without authorization, and must stick to their positions. Reinforcements are coming soon, and they are required to wait for an opportunity to regain their positions." Clausewitz ordered. Now knowing that the troops have suffered heavy losses, he cannot agree to let them retreat. Because behind their line of defense is the vast central European plain, and there is no danger at all. Once they retreat, the French army will drive straight into the hinterland of Prussia, and even directly threaten Berlin.

The young officer did not refute, and went directly to give the order.

Later, another staff officer handed over the intelligence from the front to Clausewitz. After reading it, Clausewitz was furious. Because it is recorded in detail above that in just one day of the war, the five legions on the front line of the Prussian Army lost more than 40,000 troops. Especially the Prussian 5th Army, which lost more than 10,000 people, and even its positions were occupied by the French 2nd Army, which directly caused the left wing of the Prussian 4th Army stationed in Cologne to be completely exposed, making the Prussian 4th Army the same heavy losses.

"Order the Prussian 1st Army to go to Leverkusen immediately to assist the 5th Army, and must hold the line of defense." Clausewitz ordered. At this time, he had no choice but to send out the Prussian 1st Army, which was used as a reserve. I hope that the most elite army in Prussia can stabilize the line of defense. At the same time, Clausewitz also sent someone to Berlin for help, hoping that Berlin could send reinforcements to support the front line. Although he knows that there are no soldiers to send in Berlin now, if he insists on sending troops, he can only send those reserve corps who are undergoing training.

After giving the order, Clausewitz sat on the chair decadently. He never imagined that his well-arranged defense line would be broken through in an instant under the attack of the two French legions. Before, he always thought that even if it didn't work, this line of defense could last for a month. By that time, the reserve army would be able to go into battle, and the reinforcements from other countries would almost arrive. In that case, the situation of the war would be fundamental changed. But the rapid advance of the French army completely shattered his dream.

On March 14, the 1st Prussian Army arrived in Leverkusen, and cooperated with the remnants of the 5th Prussian Army to resist the attack of the 2nd French Army. The entry of the Prussian 1st Army halted the French attack, and the two sides fell into a brief stalemate. In the afternoon of the same day, the city wall of Cologne was blasted by the fierce artillery fire of the French army. The 1st, 2nd, and 6th Infantry Divisions of the French Army quickly broke into the city and started a fierce battle with the 4th Prussian Army. Due to the gap in numbers and weapons, the Prussian 4th Army retreated steadily. By the evening of that day, one-third of the city of Cologne had been controlled by the French army. But no one expected that that night, the Prussian 4th Army launched a surprise attack on the French army. The French army was caught off guard, especially the 6th Infantry Division was hit hard, losing more than 3,000 people, and was almost driven out of Cologne.

Subsequently, in order to reduce the loss of troops, Marshal Lanz, the head of the French 3rd Army, ordered the artillery of the Legion to bombard Cologne indiscriminately. Under the fierce shelling of the French army, the whole of Cologne became a sea of ​​flames. The shelling lasted for a whole morning. After the shelling was over, Cologne became a ruin, and 50% of the buildings in Cologne were destroyed. The Prussian 4th Army stationed in Cologne suffered heavy casualties. More than 10,000 people in the entire army were killed or injured by the French bombardment. In addition, the most casualties were the civilians in Cologne who had not had time to evacuate. When the French army entered Cologne, about 200,000 civilians were too late to evacuate. Almost half of them were lost in the shelling. After that, the severely damaged Prussian 4th Army could no longer resist the French attack and had to withdraw from Cologne. But at this time, there were only more than 20,000 people left in the Prussian Fourth Army, and many of them were injured. Although Lanz's order greatly reduced the losses of the French army, it was also questioned by later generations because of the large number of civilian deaths. But what they didn't know was that Lanz had consulted Paris before giving the order to bombard. It was Xiao Jie who called him back, and Xiao Jie also gave an order that if the artillery could not kill the enemy to the maximum extent, the air force would carry out the bombing. Of course, the artillery took care of Cologne, and after receiving Xiao Jie's order, the air force assisted the army and carried out intensive bombing of Krefeld, Dusseldorf, Duisburg and other places, making these The city was completely in ruins, and the defenses of the Prussian army were also destroyed by the bombing of the French Air Force.

After Cologne was occupied, the French 2nd Army attacked Leverkusen with all its strength. The Prussian 1st and 5th Army lost, and had to retreat to Solingen on March 16, while the French 2nd Army followed.

On the same day, the French 3rd Army captured Krefeld and Dusseldorf. After that, the French 3rd Army was divided into two, and the main force of the Legion attacked Duisburg and Essen to the north, and attacked Dortmund, the command center of the Prussian army. The other two infantry divisions are Wuppertal, which is the rear of the 1st, 4th, and 5th Prussian armies.

Under the threat of being surrounded, the Prussian 1st, 4th, and 5th Army had to abandon Solingen and retreat directly to Dortmund. But at this time, there were only more than 60,000 people in the three legions who could fight again. Only 4 days after the start of the war, the three legions deployed to the southern front lost half of their troops. This was definitely a huge blow to Clausewitz and Prussia.

The attack of the French 1st Army was also very smooth. Under the attack of the powerful French 1st Army, the weak Netherlands had no power to resist at all. On March 16, in just four days, the 1st French Army captured The Hague and captured most of the government. The Dutch royal family and the prime minister fled to the UK ahead of schedule to form a government-in-exile. After that, Davout left two infantry divisions to continue to attack the northern Netherlands, while he himself led the main force of the 1st French Army to attack eastward, cooperating with the main force of the 3rd French Army in Essen and other places. Under the command of Davout, the French 1st Army attacked extremely violently, as if to vent their anger. Originally, Davout was a person who longed for war, but in this war, his French 1st Army was actually arranged in the Netherlands. How can he not hold back his anger? For a while, the situation of the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th Army Corps on the Prussian Western Front became extremely critical. In order to avoid being surrounded by the French army, Clausewitz reluctantly issued an order to withdraw troops. Nearly 70,000 remnants of the three armies on the Prussian Western Front retreated to Dortmund. At this time, most of the six Prussian legions were wiped out, and the remaining troops could not last long under the pressure of the three French legions.

On March 16, King Friedrich William III of Prussia received a request for help from Clausewitz. For a while, Pu Friedrich William III was shocked and at a loss. While yelling at Clausewitz for losing troops and generals, he couldn't defend the line of defense. On the other side, they had to send two of the reserve corps who were still in training to support Clausewitz. At the same time, send envoys to Russia and Austria, hoping that they can send troops to support Prussia as soon as possible. In addition, Friedrich William III also began to pack up his belongings secretly, and if he found out that something was wrong, he would prepare to flee from Berlin~lightnovelpub.net~ He didn't want to be captured by the French army.

The French 4th Army also successfully defeated the whole country of the Thuringian Kingdom in Frankfurt, annihilating nearly 50,000 people in the Thuringian Kingdom. Since then, the Thuringian Kingdom has no power to fight again. After the victory, the French 4th Army was not busy attacking Erfurt, the capital of the Kingdom of Thuringia, to destroy the Kingdom of Thuringia. Instead, it entered Prussia from the south in accordance with the order issued by the General Staff, and attacked Kassel and other troops. Marching to the ground, preparing to cut off the connection between the Prussian front and Berlin, and together with the French 1st, 2nd, and 3rd armies, encircled and wiped out all the troops on the Prussian front.

In southern Germany, the Iberian 2nd Army also successfully defeated Stuttgart, where the two Bavarian armies were stationed, annihilated more than 30,000 Bavarian troops, and marched towards the Bavarian capital Munich, preparing to directly threaten Austria from the west. In Italy, the 1st Iberian Army successfully held off the 4 Austrian Army in Slovenia.

All this shows that in the land war with the Anti-French Alliance, the French side achieved great victories in the early stages of the war, and the countries of the Anti-French Alliance retreated steadily. However, Xiao Jie didn't have any extra time to be happy for the army's victory. He and the general staff focused most of their energy on the British side. In the naval battle on March 11, the French Navy's Atlantic Fleet and The Mediterranean Fleet successfully ambushed the British Atlantic Fleet. The next thing they have to do is to further destroy the British navy and prepare for landing in the UK.