Chapter 1003: Chapter 911: Knowing How to Retreat Is the Mark of an Excellent Officer
Oreal watched the chaotic Austrian camp through his telescope, feeling a sense of unreality.
Despite consistently holding the advantage and offensively pressing, why did the Austrians beco so helpless after receiving reinforcents?
Although he couldn’t understand, he issued his attack orders without hesitation:
“Let Major Malmon push the cannon forward by 500 paces. No need to worry; there are no enemies who can threaten him now.
“Tell the seventh and eighth battalions to ignore the prisoners, keep pressing forward, and don’t give the enemy ti to regroup.
“Where are my cavalry now? Have them charge the northern positions before the Austrian cannons are ready…”
The infantry line composed of nearly 7,000 French Army soldiers quickly crossed the outermost Austrian defenses. With the support of cannon fire, in less than an hour, they had advanced to the edge of Bajahaza’s camp.
This made the already chaotic Austrian camp even more chaotic.
Unable to succeed in getting Wilmze to remove his n from the camp, Bajahaza was forced to order a retreat—his soldiers were focused only on food and couldn’t even assemble into formation. With them in the camp, Bajahaza couldn’t accomplish a thing.
However, when the French shells landed in Bajahaza’s camp, the soldiers who had co out from the Mantua Fortress suddenly realized the situation.
But they didn’t organize resistance; instead, they fled in the opposite direction without hesitation.
Well, now that their stomachs were sowhat full, they had more strength in their legs to run.
Bajahaza’s rear guard, left to cover the retreat, was instantly scattered by these tens of thousands of fleeing soldiers.
Behind them, the line formations of the French army followed in close pursuit, coordinating extrely well.
Thus, the Austrian retreat turned into a rout.
Just like that, more than 10,000 soldiers of the Oreluo Army chased over 30,000 enemies, covering 6 kiloters on the Po River Plain in just over an hour.
3 kiloters northwest of Bajahaza’s camp.
Carl Ludwig rode back and forth, urgently urging the officers who hadn’t yet completed their formations.
Realizing earlier that the situation in the Austrian camp was out of control, he decisively pulled his legion out.
Since they were away from those “starving ghosts” from Mantua, coupled with the relatively high training level of his Moravian soldiers, they barely managed to reorganize their formations.
At this mont, Lieutenant Colonel Moze under Bajahaza, along with several hundred panicked deserters, ca running towards them.
Upon seeing the Moravian Legion’s banners and the assembled thousands of soldiers, Moze was overjoyed.
He quickly found Archduke Karl and shouted from afar:
“Your Highness, the general has already ordered a retreat, but the French have broken through our rear defenses. Please rush to reinforce!”
Archduke Karl, with a grave expression, had a map brought to him and indicated to Moze: “Then, where would I block the enemy most effectively?”
“Where to block?” Moze was montarily stunned. “The French are everywhere, anywhere would do.”
Archduke Karl frowned imdiately and continued to ask:
“Then, which direction has the fewest enemies?”
“It should be the north side…”
Archduke Karl imdiately turned to instruct the order officer: “Order the entire army to move north imdiately. Expand the scouting range and try not to engage the enemy.”
“Yes, General!”
Moze hastily tried to dissuade him: “Your Highness, if you don’t reinforce, the legion will be lost!”
Archduke Karl glanced at him and said coldly: “It’s clear that our army has completely collapsed. Going to fight the French head-on now would be to waste the lives of soldiers.”
“But…”
Archduke Karl motioned for Moze to mount his horse, turning the reins, and asked: “What do you think the French most want to do right now?”
“It should be to pursue General Bajahaza…”
“No, it is to rush towards the direction of Trento,” Archduke Karl said. “Judging from Napoleon’s previous attack routes, he should plan to encircle Marshal Alvinzy from both the eastern and western directions.
“The Oreluo Army is responsible for attacking the eastern side.
“However, they’ve been blocked by us at the Visio River, and now they must be anxious to complete the encirclent.”
Moze said urgently: “Then you mustn’t let them through!”
“My forces cannot stop them.”
“Then, what should we do?”
“Make the French feel very threatened, to slow their speed, and then ask Marshal Alvinzy for support,” Archduke Karl sighed. “Hopefully, this strategy will work.”
He was in luck, as his legion moved 4 kiloters north without encountering Oreluo’s forces.
After confirming there were no French troops nearby, Archduke Karl ordered 5,000 soldiers to spread out east-west in a sparse single file line to cover a larger area.
He then sent out several infantry battalions to move south, instructing them to fire a few shots if they encountered the French but to avoid full engagent.
After arranging all this, he looked at Moze again:
“Your task is to quickly contact General Bajahaza and tell him to…”
The next day, before dawn, Oreal and Malmon were discussing the day’s battle plans.
Although they unexpectedly achieved a decisive victory, Bajahaza’s remnants still numbered five to six thousand, fleeing southwards. anwhile, another group of several thousand Austrians seed prepared to join Alvinzy’s central forces.
They had to find a balance between completing their encirclent objective and pursuing the fleeing enemy to expand their success.
As they spoke, a cavalry captain entered the tent, saluted, and said: “Colonel, we detected enemy activity in Saint Leon Village and the Sarolno area to the north.”
The tent door was opened again by a courier: “Colonel, the seventh infantry battalion was just attacked by Austrians. However, we quickly repelled the enemy.”
Oreal frowned and marked the unusual points on the map.
Malmon, looking at the map, said: “It seems, the enemy has ambushed a force on our right flank?”
Oreal nodded: “Send cavalry scouts north for a thorough reconnaissance imdiately.”
He also recalled the position of Bajahaza’s remnants and the enemy fleeing towards Trento in the west, furrowing his brow even more—if there really were Austrian troops lurking to his north, he was in a massive encirclent!
He quickly thought of a possibility and looked at Malmon: “Perhaps Bajahaza’s sudden defeat yesterday was to lure us into a trap?”
The latter also felt a jolt: “If so, their bizarre chaos could then be explained.”
Two hours later, two cavalry scouts returned to report to Oreal: “Colonel, we discovered a large number of enemy troops 4 kiloters to the north, possibly more than 15,000.”
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