Chapter 256 252.Prussian pursuit

The cavalry company chasing Kavi belonged to the 3rd Cavalry Division of the Prussian First Army.

Since a major was captured in the battle of Gablenz, the division headquarters has equipped all of them with sufficient rifle bullets, and also transferred a three-pound cavalry cannon. The original company of more than 60 people was due to the cavalry and cannon.

With the addition of gunners, the number came to about 80 people.

Of course, the company's firepower has been greatly improved, but their main function has not changed, and they are still conducting frontline reconnaissance across the main battlefield.

The order the company received this time was to cross the barracks of the Austrian Sixth Army and conduct a reconnaissance to see if there were any senior officers who had fled, and then to investigate the movement of other reinforcements in the rear of the Sixth Army along the way.

We did find a lot of deserters along the way, and the Caravan Guards' carriage also successfully attracted their attention.

Generally, those who can board a four-seater carriage are big shots. Two horses can't pull it very fast. The key is three carriages. There are also a lot of cavalry escorting them around. Seeing that the enemy has such an escort convoy, I have an absolute numerical advantage.

If you don't catch him under the circumstances, you would be a fool.

The fighter plane disappeared in a blink of an eye, and Captain Mendelstein immediately issued the order to pursue. The cavalry artillery was slow and could walk slowly behind the team, but they, the cavalry with only rifles, could not wait.

If we can really catch a few big fish, then promotion will become a certainty.

However, what he regarded as a simple pursuit operation did not go smoothly. Shortly after issuing the order, the other party presented him with several difficult problems.

The first thing that surprised him was that the commander of the opposing escort made a very calm judgment on the spot and decisively abandoned the carriage and main road route when he knew that escape was impossible.

Although the vast majority of officers can make this judgment after rational analysis, it requires considerable courage and extremely high requirements on the execution ability of the entire team.

Mendelstein was not aware of this at the time, and continued to issue orders after briefly analyzing the terrain.

The gravel road runs east-west. There are dense woods in the north. There is no road and can block the view. The trees in the south are much sparser, but they are all slopes made of large and small rocks. There are countless bunkers, but the movement will be difficult.

Very inconvenient.

Regardless of the speed of the evacuation or the physical quality of the escorts, this team was more likely to escape north, but Mendelstein would rather split up his forces to find them rather than block them.

As a result, among the 20 brothers who split up and entered the woods, 3 were slightly injured, and the other 8 fell directly to the enemy's first round of shooting.

The opponent's shooting accuracy is very high, and he is also good at using the terrain, and the targets of his attacks will not overlap. If the rifle in his hand had not fired too slowly, other people would probably have told him where he was.

Mendelstein was also considered a qualified commander, and he quickly recovered from the bad mood of losing his team members. The opponent's position was revealed in advance, which relieved him. After gathering other people, he made three plans

direction of the siege plan.

There was nothing wrong with the order itself, but the problem was that he didn't realize that the convoy had been divided into two groups.

Knowing the opponent's location + formulating a plan itself slowed down the attack speed and gave the blocking team a long time to breathe. The second wave of offensive still caused Mendelstein's cavalry company to lose 7 brothers, and the opponent's firepower was not considered

The key to being fierce is to be precise enough and have clear goals.

If it were in the past, Mendelstein, who had an absolute numerical advantage, would not hesitate and would definitely let everyone press on and end the battle quickly.

But this time he hesitated.

Attacking a high ground is not the advantage of cavalry, so there are mounted artillery. After seeing the horse artillery carriage slowly coming from behind, he chose to be steady and pull the cavalry artillery into the battlefield for the first time.

"Tell them to withdraw!"

The adjutant standing next to him was a little confused: "Withdraw now?"

"The opponent has received strict training and a strong attack is not advisable. Too many brothers have been lost."

The adjutant nodded and asked the musician to blow the retreat whistle: "What should we do next? Should we let the cavalry artillery enter?"

"Yes, let's blast it with cannonballs for a few rounds first, and then attack."

"Actually, there is no need to do this." The adjutant was very confident about the charge, "I will lead the team up, and I will definitely be able to take down these people!"

"Don't worry, Opal, the weapons have changed, and the tactics must also change." Mendelstein looked at the lightly wounded soldiers who returned to the team, his eyes full of heartache, "Since you gave me so many shells, just put them away

Wouldn’t it be a pity not to use it?”

"Yes!" the adjutant gave the order to the gunner who had just arrived, "shoot 5 rounds at a height of 200 meters in front of the target."

In fact, the power of the 3-pound shell in this kind of forest terrain is not very great. The angle is not good in nature, and the blocking team is completely dispersed, so the effect is very limited.

From Mendelstein's perspective, every command he chose was excusable. But from God's perspective, he was completely at a disadvantage in these rounds of command games, wasting offensive opportunities.

But fortunately, many years of practical experience suddenly turned into some kind of self-doubt in his mind. It appeared suddenly and inexplicably, but it made him instantly alert and realized that he had made a major mistake.

"Stop shooting!"

Shortly after the third shell flew out of the barrel, Mendelstein asked the mounted artillery gunner to give up shooting and said to the adjutant beside him: "Except the gunner, everyone put bayonets on their rifles and charge directly to the high ground!"

"Yes!" the adjutant quickly raised his voice and gave the order, "Everyone, mount your bayonets and charge with me!"

Two waves of attacks were repulsed, and the cavalry company suffered considerable losses. However, in the face of the absolute superiority in numbers and firepower, the sniper team of only twelve people was no match at all. The third round of attacks went very smoothly, with only 11 people lost.

Down to the high ground.

but.

"Just this few people???" Mendelstein couldn't believe his eyes, "If I'm not mistaken, there are at least 20 people in the entire team!"

"We found these people."

"Did they just stay to block the pursuit, while the others had already escaped?"

Mendelstein stood on the slope of the highland and looked at the layers of woods in front of him. His previous interest in this escort had been reduced by more than half: "Are there any alive?"

"There are two of them, but they don't have military rank badges. They look like ordinary soldiers."

"Ordinary soldiers?" Mendelstein didn't believe it. "You clean the battlefield quickly, and then ask Opal to ask if they are soldiers of the Sixth Army, right? Where is Opal?"

It was only then that he discovered that the adjutant who had been following him was missing. Soon a soldier brought bad news: "Lieutenant"

"What's wrong with him?"

"The damn Austrians smashed his face with rocks."

"What!?"

Opper held the rifle with the bayonet in his hand and led the soldiers to rush to the high ground first. Seeing that there were only a few soldiers blocking the hillside, he thought that the battle could be ended as easily as before. Unfortunately, this kind of luck and underestimation of the enemy got to him.

A big loss.

The opponent did not consider his own life or death at all. After being penetrated by the bayonet, he pressed Opal under him with the blade of the knife and smashed his face with the sharp stone in his hand.

The lieutenant had never seen such a fierce soldier, and he was knocked unconscious by the first blow. If there were no other people around to help him, his head would definitely be smashed into pieces like a pumpkin.

"Opper, Opal!!!"

Opal was still conscious. The skin around his left eye socket was swollen and torn, but he could still see with his right eye that the person coming was Mendelstein. However, his mouth was seriously injured, and his upper and lower lips were split several times.

White bones can still be seen in some places, and if you open your mouth to speak forcefully, you can barely hear part of it.

".Highland. I'm fine."

In the eyes of soldiers who were accustomed to seeing all kinds of bloody scenes, the lieutenant's injuries did not seem serious, but Mendelstein still felt uncomfortable looking at his broken face. Soon, this emotion turned into unquenchable anger.

.

He quickly had the two surviving Austrian soldiers brought in, and knowing that there was no way to pry their mouths open, he imitated the other party's method and beat them to death with stones.

It's nice to vent your anger, but it doesn't solve the problem.

What faced Mendelstein was a multiple-choice question: what to do if the team had more than ten wounded soldiers.

According to the general treatment plan, the direction should be changed now and the wounded soldiers should be sent back to the military headquarters for treatment by military surgeons. However, there is still the Austrian Sixth Army between them and the military headquarters, which is different from the early bypass.

, now it will take at least half a day to go back and bypass the front line.

He could discard the cavalry artillery shells and free up carriage space for the wounded, but he did not dare to risk turning back.

What should we do if the Sixth Army retreats towards him and encounters him on the way?

What should we do if the front line breaks into chaos and the battle lines are completely spread out?

What if they can't survive the bumps on the road and die on the way?

"map!"

As the commander of the reconnaissance cavalry, it is a basic skill to clearly identify the map marks around the next course of action before combat: "This is not far from Gablenz. There are many small towns and villages around, and there may be doctors there."

"They should all have run away."

"There are private houses even if there are no doctors. We can give them a good place to rest and wait for our army to attack." Mendelstein looked at the map and thought this was the safest way. "We are now in Gabu.

About 30 kilometers east of Lenz, the nearest town should be in this direction."

This decision seemed strange to other soldiers.

Because even if you really arrive in town safely, you can't get a good treatment without professional surgeons. Although those doctors don't look professional, and the mortality rate of treatment is also high, it is at least better than nothing.

If the residents of the town did not leave, they would still have to be wary of the xenophobic sentiments of these Austrians, and even consider whether the other party had weapons and whether they would resist.

Generally speaking, it is wiser to retreat to your own military headquarters. Going to the so-called towns to repair them and waiting for the army to come forward to find them is actually more like a gamble.

Mendelstein admitted that he was betting, but he was betting on the escape direction of the person protected by the escort.

After capturing the hillside of the highland and seeing his previous error in judgment, he actually gave up the idea of ​​continuing the pursuit. The blockade blocked him for a long time, and no one could determine where the opponent had escaped. He still had

There were many horses and mounted artillery on the roadside, and it would not be wise to leave them behind and pursue them on foot.

But Opal's unrecognizable injuries made him really angry. Being beaten like this on his face was tantamount to disfigurement, and his jaw bones were shattered. He might have trouble even eating and talking in the future.
To be continued...