Iron Wall

As the Russian troops, outside the range of the French Army Minié Rifle, swiftly changed from a line to a column and rapidly advanced towards the French Army positions, Napoleon's eyes widened. "This... isn't this our tactic?"

"General, over the years, countless people have tried to imitate our fighting methods," Suchet said, raising his chin high. "But no matter how much they imitate us, they are all still defeated by us."

"Hahaha..." Napoleon laughed. "Louis, do you know? Someone once said something very similar to what you just said."

"Who?" Suchet asked.

"My brother Joseph —the one who always wears his Academy of Academy of Sciences badge on his chest whenever I'm in uniform in front of him—well, we've had picnics together. And he wasn't talking about the military, he was talking about the products of the 'Military-Industrial Consortium,'" Napoleon said, picturing Joseph with a large Academy of Academy of Sciences badge on his chest, looking smug. "He said, 'We've always been imitated, but never surpassed.' But seriously, just that formation change they did just now, outside our rifle range, really surpassed our previous level."

Suchet laughed along. Surpassing the French Army in this respect, especially the French Army when they were still widely using column assault tactics, was indeed not difficult. Because back then, the main reason the French Army adopted this tactic was that their soldiers were not well-trained and could not form neat lines.

The army before them, approaching from a greater distance, adopted a thin line formation to avoid being hit by solid artillery shells (so that even if hit, only one or two people would be killed). When they were close to rifle range, they could quickly change from a line formation to a column formation. This ability to change formation itself demonstrated that the army was highly trained.

After completing their formation change, the Russian troops continued advancing. Meanwhile, the French Army artillery began firing on them.

A shell struck a Russian phalanx precisely, like a bowling ball hitting a row of pins. It knocked a large group of Russian soldiers to the ground with a series of cracking sounds. However, unlike a bowling ball, where the pins at least remained intact, the soldiers felled by the cannonball were not so lucky; the very front few were almost torn to pieces.

However, the Russian troops who followed Suvorov into Italy were all veterans who had seen life and death on the battlefields against Turkey and Poland. Therefore, the Russian army's advance was not significantly affected, and they continued to approach the French Army at a constant speed, soon entering the French Army minefield.

The landmines detonated quickly, and with each explosion, Russian soldiers clutched their feet and fell to the ground. However, this did not stop the Russian troops from advancing. Soon, the barbed wire fence appeared before them.

Several soldiers carrying explosive charges quickly stepped out of their ranks and rushed towards the barbed wire.

"Bang bang bang..." A plume of smoke rose from the French Army trenches. Many soldiers carrying explosives were shot down, but some still managed to reach the barbed wire and stuff the explosives under it.

With several explosions, the barbed wire was blasted open in several sections. Almost simultaneously, the Russian troops deployed their formation, bayonets at the ready, and charged towards these gaps.

"How brave!" Napoleon exclaimed.

"Indeed, their bravery is no less than that of our army!" Suchet exclaimed. "Unfortunately, the braver they are, the faster they die."

Just as the Russian troops rushed toward the gap in the barbed wire, a row of Claymore Mine detonated not far from the fence. Each Claymore fired eight hundred iron pellets at the Russian troops on the other side. The simultaneous detonation of so many Claymore was like a sudden downpour on the front lines, or like a sudden hailstorm in summer pelting down on a wheat field, flattening the entire field of wheat to the ground.

Looking around, almost all the Russian soldiers at the forefront were knocked to the ground; a single explosion had caused thousands of casualties among the Russian army.

"I never imagined this thing could be so ferocious!" A little further away, Marshal Suvorov lowered his binoculars and exclaimed, "When the Britain talked about its power, I thought they were exaggerating, but I never expected..."

"The France truly have the best science and technology in Europe," Bagration exclaimed. "However, even with that, we can't stop them."

Indeed, this round of blows was very heavy, but it was only like throwing a large stone into a rushing tide. The stone splashed up a huge spray of water and made a loud noise, but it was soon submerged by the tide that followed.

More Russia soldiers stepped over the corpses lying on the ground and rushed through the first barbed wire fence. Ahead of them lay the first French Army trench.

"Bang bang bang..." The French Army in the trenches fired their last volley at the Russia, then turned and retreated along the longitudinal communication trenches to the second trench behind them. At the same time, in front of the first trench, another row of Claymore was detonated.

This row of "Claymore" failed to stop the Russia, but it did slightly hinder their advance, giving the French Army in the trenches time to retreat.

The French Army in the first trench moved rapidly along the communication trench towards the second trench behind it. The Russian troops also quickly rushed up to the first trench.

"They've charged up! They've charged up!" Bagration shouted excitedly.

"Peter, it's still early." Suvorov frowned. "Why hasn't there been any fighting here? If this line of defense is relatively important, why didn't they put up any resistance when we charged up the first trench?"

"So what are they planning to do?" Bagration.

"They intend to wear us down at the next line of defense, then launch a counterattack when our forces are exhausted," Suvorov said. "Immediately order the front to retreat if they encounter any obstacles. Today, securing the first line of defense is enough. Also, let the follow-up troops in; the France might counterattack. We can only rely on them to hold them off."

The messenger cavalry immediately charged forward. Meanwhile, the Russian troops, taking advantage of the French Army retreat, rushed towards the second trench.

There's a distance of several hundred meters between the first and second trenches, and a barbed wire fence between them. There also seems to be a shortcut between the two trenches – a communication trench vertically connecting them. The French Army just retreated from here. If we pursue them from here, it seems we can pass under the barbed wire fence.

So some soldiers chased after the France through the trenches. At first, the chase seemed to go smoothly, but just as they were about to reach the second trench, at the exit of the trench, a France soldier reached out and pulled back a yellow cloth, revealing an 8-pounder cannon with its muzzle pointed directly at the trench. Then, a flash of light appeared, and an 8-pound iron ball was launched.

The trench wasn't very wide, and there wasn't much room to hide. Of course, although the shells of that era were much slower than those of later cannons, they were still too fast for humans to dodge on their own. So the shells flew from one end of the trench to the other, turning the Russia inside into pieces.

Clearly, attacking through the trenches was not a good strategy. There was no way to hide there. Even though the cannons were slow to reload, there was a chance to rush up during the lull after each shot was fired. However, there were still France soldiers there, taking turns firing their guns, which could hold off the Russia for a while. Then, the cannons would be reloaded again...

Since rushing through the trenches to gain an advantage was not an option, the only choice was to launch a ground attack. However, the situation on the ground was not good either, as there were many landmines and barbed wire, behind which were artillery pieces loaded with grapeshot and Claymore Mine.

Taking advantage of the France retreating to the second trench, the Russia launched another attack. However, this time, they failed to cross the trench; their courage and strength had been exhausted in the previous battles. This time, they couldn't even get over the barbed wire before being driven back by the France.

"The France are about to launch a counterattack," Suvorov immediately concluded.

As expected, the France launched a counterattack, initially driving the retreating Russians back to the first trench with rifle and cannon fire. The Russia jumped into the trenches, using their cover to exchange fire with the France. However, this exchange was still unfair; the first trench lacked a breastwork on the France- facing side, so in terms of depth, at least in that direction, it was insufficient to completely conceal a person.

However, as more people retreated into the first trench, a large flash of light suddenly appeared in the first trench, followed by a series of loud explosions.

The cunning France had already planted landmines with detonating wires in the first trench. Their sudden detonation caused heavy casualties to the retreating Russian troops. The French Army then seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

At this moment, Russia reinforcements began to approach the first trench. But just then, the French Army artillery roared to life again.

Suvorov had assumed the France would continue firing solid shot at the reinforcements. However, this time the shells were completely different; their trajectories were much higher. (The muzzle velocities of artillery in this era were very low, and the projectiles were visible to the naked eye during flight.)

"This is no ordinary solid shot," Bagration. "While this trajectory height allows the shell to fly farther, it makes it very difficult for it to ricochet. This is no ordinary solid shot."