C2673 Battle of Walter (1/2)

The Wiesanburg's French army suffered a crushing defeat, but the actual casualties were not high. Although the dark night gave the attacker a huge advantage, it also gave the retreating troops the best camouflage.

Out of the more than ten thousand soldiers of the First Division, only three to four thousand were actually captured. The remaining six thousand veterans dispersed and attacked, then regrouped during their escape to form a new unit. Finally, on the second day, they arrived at Walter's meeting with the commander.

From this, one could see the excellence of these vanguard unit s. Once the old soldiers were defeated, they would not sneak back home.

This way, McMahon would have more than 6000 strong army in his hands. Even if he just recuperated a little, these veteran soldiers would still be able to fight in the battlefield.

By now, the number of French infantry near Walter had reached thirty-six thousand men, ten thousand cavalry, a total of forty-six thousand men, and they were all the elites of the Empire, veterans of the Civil War.

Not only that, the ammunition supplies for the 46,000 people were plentiful, since no one in vanguard unit dared to empty them up!

If such an army were to fight Prince Karl, the victor of this battle was uncertain!

On the other hand, Prince Karl's side, Prussia had a total of 78,000 troops! It looked like it was double the French army, but at the moment, Prince Karl's army only had a little over 40,000 people left.

The rest of the troops had just gathered from the rear. Some were distributing ammunition, while others were heading towards the battlefield on foot.

The only ones who could fight were the forty thousand people in the middle, it seemed like McMahon still had a bit of an advantage!

However, the disparity in military strength could not make up for the huge drop in national destiny. When the national destiny of a people began to decline, many strange accidents would happen.

Fate always stretched out its hand to cover the eyes of the decadent, and there would always be small accidents that would change the outcome of the battle.

The defeated soldiers brought false information, which resulted in McMahon making a wrong judgement. He clearly should have used his superiority to fight with the enemy, but his orders were to fight carefully, and if necessary, he could get closer to the center of the army.

This kind of conservative strategy directly caused the morale of the army to waver!

Another fatal mistake was that he should not have allowed these defeated soldiers to come into direct contact with Walter's army. The setback brought by the defeated soldiers was real, so how would the other soldiers feel when they saw how badly their comrades had been beaten?

Coupled with McMahon's extremely weak strategy, it was an even greater proof of the soldiers' wild thoughts.

The army passed a sleepless night under the influence of an indescribable emotion. In the end, early the next morning, the Third Division on the eastern front started fighting with the vanguard of the Prussian army.

It was a misty morning. The soldiers of the Third Division Group started to go to the stream in groups to fetch water to make breakfast, but on their way to get water, they suddenly heard some rustling sounds coming from within the mist.

When they focused their eyes, they were so scared that they started sweating, only to see ten Prussian soldier s rushing out from the mist.

The two sides looked each other in the eye and were all stunned. Then, they all burst out with mournful howls, ”There's an enemy!” Discovered enemy! ”

Pah pah pah … Prussian soldier was the first to open fire, sweeping away a large portion of the French army who were collecting water!

Less than a quarter of the soldiers escaped back alive. As they ran, they screamed miserably, ”The Prussian is here! Prussian ambushed us … ”

The entire camp was in chaos. The soldiers wrapped in blankets jumped up from the ground, grabbed their rifles and began loading them with ammunition!

All the officers gathered their men, and the voice of the messenger rang out one after another.

In the east of Third Division, the footsteps were getting more intense in the mist. Everyone knew that the enemy was here!

All of a sudden, the thick fog seemed to have been sucked away by a giant invisible hand, and strangely dissipated.