Augereau led the 10,000 soldiers of the Royal 4th Infantry Division on the central route north through Wurzburg and Coburg, taking the shortest path straight toward Berlin.
Surt commanded the western army, whose core consisted of 30,000 soldiers from the Second Army Corps. They advanced north along the Rhine River's eastern bank, rendezvousing with the Lefebvre Legion near Hesse and seeking an opportunity to block the Brunswick Corps.
Although the total force involved in this large-scale flanking operation numbered only a little over 100,000, every one of them was an elite veteran who had fought in the previous Anti-French Alliance war. Their marching speed and combat strength were absolutely the ceiling of Europe.
The vast plains of Western Europe were precisely the finest battlefield for them to display their strength!
January 26, 1799.
Karlsruhe, capital of Baden.
At this moment, Gaizika was going through the most disheartened day since joining the army.
Since yesterday, large numbers of soldiers had been passing near his camp—judging by their flags, they should have been from the Third Army Corps. According to the company commander, they were preparing to launch an attack on the enemy from the direction of Bavaria.
When Gaizika heard that, he had been so excited that he did not sleep all night, imagining countless times how he would crush the enemy in Bavaria.
Yet at noon today, the Regiment Commander assembled the troops and publicly announced that the Sixth Army Corps they belonged to would be tasked with defending Karlsruhe.
Nacelli had asked around among the other soldiers. The First and Second Army Corps had guarded Baden for several months, yet the Allied Forces had never come here at all.
However, Gaizika had been dejected for less than a day before a piece of good news filled him with