Following Frederick's deployment, Kirchbach's Fifth Army Corps and the Hechingen Brigade were chiefly tasked with preventing France's Rhine Army from moving south to reinforce the Châlons Army.
Napoleon III had now begun drawing in his forces himself. To prevent Prussia from severing the connection between MacMahon and the Rhine Army under his own command, leaving them caught in a pincer attack from both sides, he ordered France's Fifth Army Corps to head south at once and support Marshal MacMahon's forces.
"Your Highness Leopold, you will deploy at Waldwiesen next, while the Fifth Army Corps and I will hold Saverne. How does that sound?"
Although the Hechingen Brigade was nominally on the same level as a Prussian army corps, Kirchbach did not see it that way. There was a difference of two whole ranks between them. Though Leopold was of noble birth and a member of the House of Hohenzollern, the battlefield was no stage where one could do as one pleased. Naturally, the main force had to be the more numerous Fifth Army Corps. In truth, although the Fifth Army Corps was a regular Prussian corps, the overwhelming majority of its soldiers came from the other states of the North German Federation rather than Prussia itself.
Leopold ignored Kirchbach and turned to search the map for Waldwiesen.
After a long while, he finally found the so-called Waldwiesen in some forgotten corner of the map. It was an inconspicuous little village at Saverne's southeastern edge.
"This won't do!" Leopold retorted.
"Although the Hechingen Brigade is a force temporarily assembled from students and has never seen a battlefield, its military qualities are not weak. We do not need your protection yet. That little place, Waldwiesen, is far too close to the rear. Even if you do not trust us, you should