In Duke of Brunswick's understanding, the French Army should have been on its way to attack Anhalt. Yet it had suddenly appeared here.
It had to be the force Surt had left behind to delay him. He immediately made his judgment and instructed the officer beside him, "General Boen, lead the hussars to support—"
Before he could finish, a messenger officer came galloping over, shouting from far away, "Marshal, more than twenty thousand French troops are closing in on us from Witzenhausen!"
Witzenhausen lay four kilometers west of the Prussian Army. In other words, he was now caught between enemies on two sides.
The scene of being captured in Luxembourg several years ago suddenly surfaced uncontrollably in Duke of Brunswick's mind.
He shook his head hard, banishing those vexing thoughts, and said to the orderly officer, "Tell General Rechten to hold the enemy back at all costs!"
Rechten was the commander of his vanguard.
Then Duke of Brunswick looked at Boen again. "The hussar regiment does not need to reinforce them. We will fight the French to the death here!"
Before the Prussian Army had fully gathered from its marching formation, Surt had already led the main force of the Second Army Corps to appear on their left flank.
First, the horse artillery surged forward, pouring shells from twelve six-pound cannons onto the Prussian Army.
Then the Skirmisher Cluster, made up of more than ten thousand French soldiers, rapidly closed in and exchanged fire with the infantry lines Duke of Brunswick had hastily deployed.
Duke of Brunswick had heard that the French had adopted a new formation on the Northern Italy battlefield, but he had always believed it was merely an advantage born of the French Army's superior shooting skills—how could the firing density of skirmishers compare with an infantry