An Ning saw a flag coming down from the high ground!
Not the kind of troop flag that every regiment has, but a bigger flag!
This shows that Beaulieu gave a flag to someone and asked him to lead the charge - it couldn't be Beaulieu himself who charged, right? The old man was already over seventy.
An Ning immediately commanded the cannon: "Aim at that flag and fire!"
Now the flag is still far away from Napoleon's position, and it is still possible to fire a wave of blocking shots. When it gets close, with the poor accuracy of modern artillery, we don't know whether to cover Napoleon or bury him.
The shells landed around the enemy troops who were charging with the flag, but because the slope was too steep and the angle at which the shells fell was not good, they failed to bounce.
Yes, in this era, rushing down a relatively steep hillside also has the advantage that enemy shells will not bounce when hit.
If An Ning hadn't been loading lime bombs, this wave of bombardment would have been completely ineffective!
The lime bomb exploded on the ground, knocking down several people with fragments, and then formed a white cloud of quicklime dust.
But the charging enemy rushed into the dust cloud without fear.
The Austrian soldiers indeed showed admirable courage.
An Ning shouted: "Ms. Oliver! I order you to bypass the frontal battlefield and attack the mill!"
This is the only mobile force An Ning has that can bypass the frontal battlefield.
Although this terrain is very unsuitable for cavalry - it can be said that it is basically impossible to charge in this terrain, and cavalry can basically only be used as a melee combat unit on horseback.
But An Ning still issued an order, he could not let Napoleon be captured.
In fact, if you think about it carefully, it's okay to be captured. The Austrian army probably wouldn't harm Napoleon, who had a noble title.
The group of Austrians who rushed down had already arrived in front of the mill. An Ning saw that Napoleon had turned the muzzle of his gun and fired grapeshot at the flag. As a result, a wave of shrapnel fell, but the man holding the flag was not knocked down! There was obviously a crowd of people around him. All down!
The female soldiers covering Napoleon also launched a charge and fought with the Austrians.
In order to take a detour, the cavalry are now marching through the bushes between the hills and have not arrived yet.
An Ning saw Napoleon pull out his saber and stand on the cannon to command the artillerymen.
It looks like he's preparing to fire another shot at this distance!
Finally, the loading was completed, and Napoleon stood on the cannon, pointing his saber at the Austrians not far away.
A soldier lit the cannon's fuse.
The muzzle of the gun sprayed out fire almost close to the Austrians.
While An Ning was paying close attention to this scene nervously, Berthier suddenly said: "The cavalry on the left wing is attacking!"
An Ning quickly put down the telescope and looked to the left wing - the field of view of the telescope was too small and not suitable for seeing things in a wide range.
He saw La Salle's cavalry appearing in the direction of the valley to the north, forming an extremely long front in two horizontal lines.
It looked like a moving city wall, or like a huge wave during a tsunami, rolling towards the enemy on the plains along the Bomida River.
**
a few minutes ago.
La Salle had been watching from the river bank as Davout's troops pushed across the Bomida River.
He was waiting for Davout's troops to establish a foothold on the east bank of the river.
Davout's military flag has always been at the forefront of the troops, leading the troops to wade through the water.
The enemy troops on the river bank continued to fire, and French troops continued to fall into the water, causing small-scale chaos.
However, perhaps inspired by the division commander's military flag, the entire army's movement across the river was not interrupted.
The artillery assigned to the Damu Division has been roaring on the river bank, doing its best to provide support to the troops crossing the river.
Lazarus was watching from the shore and chanting: "Come on! Cross the river and spread out in front of the enemy! Hurry!"
Finally, Davout's military flag landed on the river bank, and soon most of Davout's troops also landed on the river bank.
There are still a small number of troops still in the water because of the bend of the river bank.
The troops who had just landed began to organize themselves into groups, and then opened fire on the Austrians.
Seeing this scene, La Salle put away his telescope, picked up the flask from the saddle, took a big sip, then hung up the flask and picked up his pipe: "Everyone! It's time for us to attack! Let's rush across the river
Go and spread out on the river bank! The formation is a horizontal line, a perfect horizontal line!
"The key is speed! As long as we speed up, the enemy will be under great psychological pressure when facing the horizontal formation!
"Let's go, warriors!"
After saying this, Lazarus took the lead and rushed into the river. The horse's hooves splashed in the water.
His cavalry rushed into the water after him, causing water to splash everywhere.
Soon the cavalry arrived on the other side.
La Salle: "Expand the formation! Quick, form horizontally!"
The well-trained cavalry immediately formed a formation on the river bank. A brigade of cavalry spread out a line nearly 150 meters wide, with the riders' knees touching their knees.
La Salle stood alone at the front. He drew his saber and said: "For France! Charge!"
The trumpeter blew the charge bugle, and the cavalry brigade followed La Salle and began to accelerate!
"Speed is the key!" La Salle shouted, "Faster, faster!"
As long as the cavalry starts running, the horses will chase each other due to instinct, so the speed will become faster and faster.
During this process, the formation will gradually disintegrate, because after all, some knights have better horses and can run faster.
But the prestige brought by high-speed charging is very amazing.
As long as the cavalry is fast enough, the enemy's morale will collapse before the cavalry actually comes into contact with the enemy.
La Salle led his cavalry to attack at full speed. The enemies lined up on the river bank were frightened when they saw the "huge wave" approaching from the side.
The collapse occurred in an instant, with the fringe brigades disintegrating first, and then chaos spread to the entire army.
The enemies began to howl and fled in all directions, and then were chased by the cavalry. A few people were shot from behind with sabers, and more people fell and were trampled to death by horses.
No matter how much the Austrian officers screamed at the top of their lungs, the collapse could not stop.
Davout watched all this happen from the front, and his deputy said eagerly: "Let's charge too, otherwise all the credit will be taken away by the cavalry!"
Davout: "No, charging will lead to formation chaos. Our task is not only to defeat the enemy on the front, we also need to outflank the enemy on Diego Heights from the side!
"This is the most important task entrusted to us by Your Majesty the General!
"Every battalion, move forward!"
Davout said as he stepped forward, his steps unwavering.
His troops also began to move, like an iron city wall, and the dense forest of spears rose and fell with neat steps, as if there was a pulse of life.
Four brigades of French troops rolled forward like a steamroller, sweeping away all the mess left by the cavalry charge.