Artillery that flew
On the wide and smooth King's Road in France, nearly 20,000 French Army soldiers marched in an endless column, their steps accompanied by loud singing.
In the latter part of the procession, the young Napoleon clung tightly to a tall gun carriage Marat, as if he were snuggling with a lover.
Yes, everyone else was sitting in the car, but he preferred to walk beside the artillery vehicle so he could see her and touch her from every angle.
That was the latest model of Horse Artillery Carriage produced by Joseph's Gem Carriage Company.
Joseph instructed the Craftsman to conduct trial production more than half a year ago, and it was only completed a few months ago. The first batch consisted of more than 20 vehicles, all of which were equipped to the Royal Guard Legion.
This enormous, long, wooden-framed Horse Artillery Carriage was based on Napoleon's later mounted guns, with some necessary modifications, of course.
The concept of Horse Artillery was created by Frederick the Great during the Seven Years' War.
The so-called Horse Artillery, simply put, is to equip the cannons and gunners with enough horses to pull them along, which greatly increases the speed of the cannons and thus greatly increases the flexibility of artillery tactics.
However, early Horse Artillery had many shortcomings, such as the need to constantly untie and tie the ropes connecting the cannons to the horses, resulting in excessively long preparation times.
The prevailing view at the time was that Horse Artillery took more than a third longer to fire than regular Artillery.
Another reason is that Horse Artillery are not suitable for equipping heavy artillery. Cannons weighing more than 6 pounds are difficult to move quickly by horses. 12-pound Cannon requires 8 horses to pull it. The soldiers who drive the horses are already considered well-trained if they can keep the horses from getting out of control. It is basically impossible for them to run fast.
Therefore, at the end of the 18th century, most countries still mainly equipped themselves with ordinary Artillery, supplemented by a small number of Horse Artillery.
However, Napoleon, a genius with artillery, maximized the advantages of Horse Artillery, even converting all the cannons in some legions into Horse Artillery.
He made many innovations in the application of Horse Artillery. For example, Horse Artillery used their speed to quickly advance, close the distance to the enemy's face, fire several volleys, and then quickly retreat. Another example is equipping Horse Artillery with Cavalry Battalion, allowing them to gallop and bombard the enemy along with the cavalry.
In short, after him, countries placed much greater emphasis on Horse Artillery.
However, for now, Napoleon is still a newbie who drools over Horse Artillery Carriage.
Historically, Napoleon 'Horse Artillery had two main core pieces of equipment: Marat cannons and Ammunition wagons.
The long, narrow wooden hut that Napoleon was "cuddling" at that moment was the very common Ammunition car later known as the "Canvas-Covered Wagon".
This device "integrates" all the logistical support for cannons. During combat, the cannonballs and Gunpowder inside can be quickly pulled out, and when moving, they can be loaded back in in a short time and pulled away by horses.
This was much more convenient and time-saving than Frederick's Horse Artillery, which used separate Gunpowder carts, Ammunition carts, and tool carts, all of which required harnessing horses to move.
Speed is the greatest advantage of Horse Artillery.
Joseph further incorporated the structure of later heavy-duty trucks, adding a plowshare to this vehicle, and changing the shell and Gunpowder modules to a pull-out design. The covers of the Gunpowder and shell boxes used automatic locking mechanisms—a design personally created by Louis XVI, known for its sturdiness and reliability.
With these modifications, the cannon's firing preparation time was seven or eight seconds faster than the original historical version.
In addition, Joseph added six seats to the Ammunition caravan for the gunners. Historically, soldiers were not allowed to ride in the Canvas-Covered Wagon; the gunners had to walk alongside it.
However, no one could resist using Carriage. So, the gunners sat on the roof of the Ammunition wagons, in a position resembling a sloping French roof. Although their buttocks were certainly uncomfortable, they had no choice but to endure it if they wanted to slack off.
Joseph knew that it would be extremely difficult to prevent the gunners from riding in the wagons, so he simply added seats for them, which was just a matter of adding a horse. This also greatly increased the movement speed of the Horse Artillery.
As for the cannons, Joseph also made some improvements, mainly by adding a latch to the breech, similar to those used between train carriages in later times.
Don't underestimate this change. When Horse Artillery need to move, the time it takes to mount the cannon on horseback is greatly reduced, and the operation is also simpler.
Another addition was a winch added to the gun mount.
When cannons were firing, the horses needed to stay far away to avoid being startled. This meant that a lot of time wasted on harnessing the horses each time the cannons fired and the horses moved to different positions.
Therefore, the Horse Artillery of the Napoleon era invented a unique operating method—the ropes connecting the cannons to the horses were left extremely long, and the ropes were not untied when firing. This way, when they wanted to move, they only needed to tighten the ropes to get on the move immediately.
Joseph went a step further, skipping the rope altogether. The horses simply dragged the long rope along, and then the gunners used the winch on the gun carriage to slowly pull up the rope.
This is what true fighting and mobility look like!
Napoleon stroked the new Horse Artillery Carriage that fascinated him, recalling the tactics of the Horse Artillery he had trained, and his heart was filled with excitement.
If these ingenious tactics and excellent weapons could be equipped to the Corsican National Guard, their fighting capacity would be multiplied.
He took a deep breath; it seemed that coming to Verdun this time was absolutely the right decision.
The troops are about to arrive in Luxembourg, where they will fight the Prussia. This will allow me to gain more experience in actual combat and grow into a true general!
Uncelle, the West Winceler Luxembourg.
Blücher, seeing through his Telescope the hundred or so Austrian Defenders fleeing in panic in the town, said expressionlessly to the Orderly Officer:
"Leave one battalion to garrison the area, the rest of you rest for an hour, then continue south. I need to capture Diekirch by tomorrow afternoon."
After defeating Leo's main force, the battle became very easy, even boring him.
Just like when he attacked Winceler, he only ordered a dozen or so rounds of artillery fire before the defending Austria fled.
It is foreseeable that tomorrow's attack on Diekirch will likely follow a similar pattern. And once that is captured, there General to Luxembourg City.
Leo's troops should still have about 1,600 men left, while he himself brought ten times that number of soldiers, so taking Luxembourg City was a foregone conclusion.
His advisor suddenly spurred his horse forward and handed him a scroll sealed with Sealing Wax:
"General, it was sent by Pozztan four days ago."
Blücher opened the secret order, frowned slightly, and looked up at his staff:
"The France have entered the war. Although General Drissen defeated them at Liegnitz, this is a very dangerous sign."
He shook the reins:
"The order is to speed up the march. We must resolve this matter here as soon as possible, and then return to Silesia to reinforce His Majesty the Duke."
Just then, two Hussars galloped up and shouted in his direction:
"General, a large enemy force has been spotted two miles to the south! They may number in the thousands."
Blücher was taken aback: Could it be Austria reinforcements? How could they have arrived so quickly?!