Rout was only a new beginning

Heine hurriedly took the Telescope from the servant and saw that the Prussia defenses were densely packed with soldiers, the line formation stretching as far as the eye could see.

"Quickly! Warn them!" he shouted immediately. "The Prussia are about to attack!"

Fortunately, although the situation on the Liegnitz front remained calm, it was still a state of war between the two countries, so the soldiers maintained a state of combat readiness on a daily basis.

Sharp whistles and drumbeats signaling assembly quickly filled the air.

Austria soldiers grumbled as they lined up near the defensive line, when they heard a barrage of artillery fire coming from the opposite side.

With the whistling of shells, nearly 20 shells landed near the Austria Artillery positions, kicking up a lot of dust.

The Austria Artillery also hastily returned fire, but after firing only about ten shots, they were shocked to find that their Ammunition was almost gone.

The Prussia began to risk advancing their cannons, and after discovering that the enemy's counterattack was very weak, they became bolder, dragging several 24-pound Fortress Cannon to the front of the battle line by more than a dozen horses.

The Duke of Brunswick had already mobilized all the cannons in the area, nearly twice the number of the cannons of the defending army in front of him. With ample Ammunition, he quickly bombarded the Austria Artillery so much that they could not raise their heads.

Marshal Lacy also received the news and rushed to Davydov's defensive zone as quickly as possible. It was already 3 p. m.

What he saw was that only four cannons remained on his defensive line, but their rate of fire was so low that he wanted to curse.

Meanwhile, the Prussia Infantry on the opposite side had fully deployed, covering the entire defense zone of Davydov. The first Infantry Line alone numbered approximately 14,000 men!

Meanwhile, a large number of Skirmishers had taken advantage of the terrain to sneak up to within 400 paces of their own defensive line.

They only had a rather thin Infantry Line, which looked to be no more than 10,000 men. There were quite a few troops on both sides who had just received the news and were rushing to the scene, but they were unable to join the battle in the short term due to their Forced March.

Marshal Lacy broke out in a cold sweat. His decision to transfer Davydov and Conrad's legions was indeed risky, but he hadn't expected Ferdinand to launch a targeted attack so quickly. Ferdinand was the Duke of Brunswick's name.

In fact, Lacy did reinforce the defenses here, but he only had less than 100,000 troops left, and he had to take care of the entire defensive line, so only more than 15,000 people were assigned to this section.

The roar of the Prussia cannons gradually subsided, followed by a series of melodious Bugle Call.

Lacy quickly looked through his Telescope and saw that the Prussia Skirmishers had begun harassing his own line formation. This meant that the enemy would soon launch a general offensive, and a large number of Infantry would press forward.

"Damn it!" he cursed under his breath, "If it weren't for that France kid, how could my defenses have such a huge gap!"

He had completely forgotten that he came to Silesia to defeat the Prussia and reclaim his homeland, not to establish any defensive line.

If Austria wanted to defend, it could have retreated to Bohemia and relied on the Sudetes Mountains Range for defense, which would have been much more effective.

But complaining was useless at this point, so Marshal Lacy had no choice but to send Orderly Officer to urge the reinforcements to speed up. Then, disregarding his subordinates' objections, he personally went to the front line and ran back and forth to boost morale.

Shortly after, a 12-pound Cannon whizzed past him, smashing a huge gap in the Infantry Line and rolling almost to the second rank before being stopped by a mound.

Seeing the blood and flesh mixed with mud on the ground, the servants hurriedly carried the Marshal to the back.

Immediately, the Prussian Army, with its four most elite Grenadier at its core, slowly advanced in a narrow Infantry Line towards the Austria positions.

Marshal Lacy's encouragement had a certain effect; with the help of Skirmishers, the Austria soldiers managed to withstand the close-range Grenadier, and then, under the orders of their officers, returned fire with a volley from a distance of 40 paces.

In the era of Infantry Line battles, as long as the soldiers could hold their ground, there was always a chance to win.

The two sides quickly engaged in a firefight—tens of thousands of soldiers stood in tight formations, ramrod straight, mechanically loading and firing along a front line more than 3 kilometers long.

Kill the enemy soldiers, or be shot down by their bullets.

This is what people often refer to as "being executed in a line."

After seven or eight rounds of firing at each other, the Prussian Army, which had the numerical advantage, began to falter and some soldiers started to retreat cautiously.

By this time, the Prussian Army was no longer the formidable force under Frederick the Great; in terms of individual soldier quality, it was even inferior to the Austria by a significant margin.

The first wave of Prussia Infantry retreated, and excited cheers erupted from the Austria positions.

However, Marshal Lacy dared not order his soldiers to pursue, because he knew that the Prussia had a huge numerical advantage.

Sure enough, the Duke of Brunswick quickly ordered the second Infantry Line to launch an attack, giving the Austria no chance to catch their breath.

Marshal Lacy ordered several Skirmisher Battalion to harass the Prussian Army's left flank at all costs, and with the help of the remaining three cannons, they barely managed to hold the line.

The two sides remained deadlocked until nightfall, when they both retreated to their Camp.

However, after most of the day's fighting, Austria had suffered heavy casualties, especially its elite Skirmisher Battalion, which were severely depleted.

After inspecting the condition of the wounded soldiers, Lacy began to make arrangements for setting up a second line of defense in the west.

The next morning, the Duke of Brunswick launched a fierce attack without any hesitation.

Under repeated attacks from over 50,000 Prussia Grand Army, the Austrian Army held out until around 2 p. m., when a Prussia Hussars finally found an opening and cut into the left flank of their Infantry Line.

With the cavalry constantly harassing the flanks, the Austria defenses collapsed instantly.

The Duke of Brunswick decisively ordered his cavalry to press the Austrian Legion inward from both flanks, while simultaneously deploying a large number of Infantry to form defensive lines on the north and south sides to block Austria reinforcements.

Marshal Lacy desperately ordered his soldiers to retreat, but they were still cornered by Prussia cavalry a day later in a depression 15 kilometers from the front line.

Fortunately, he managed to slip out of the encirclement before the enemy forces closed in. But when he looked at the huge gap in his own defensive line on the map, his heart sank.

At present, the best-case scenario is to hold off the Prussia, wait for our troops to withdraw from Ratibor, and then try to stabilize the front line.

However, after this crushing defeat, the recapture of Silesia has become virtually impossible.

As for the more than 10,000 soldiers who were surrounded, he had already given up hope.

However, as he sat on his horse, peering through his Telescope at the surrounded soldiers, his eyes suddenly widened—

In the far distance, a cavalry unit was charging at great speed toward the flank of the Prussia, and those men appeared to be wearing white military uniforms.