First Battle Won (Begging for Double Monthly Tickets!)

The utterly one-sided exchange of fire lasted six volleys—or, more accurately, the French Army fired six volleys while the other side managed only four.

Combined with the fierce bombardment from the French cannon, large gaps soon appeared in the Austrian Army's line formation.

No one knew who was the first to turn and flee, but it immediately set off the Austrian soldiers around him. Within mere minutes, the rout had spread across the entire Infantry Line.

Prince Coburg hurriedly ordered the second Infantry Line behind them to move up, but to his surprise, the French Army's Horizontal Formation immediately drew together into more than a dozen Columns, passing through the scattering Austrian soldiers and charging straight up to the Austrian line behind them.

The Austrian soldiers in the rear were utterly unprepared. Even after the French Columns had deployed, quite a few of them were still carrying out their previous orders—moving forward to take over the defenses of the routed soldiers. More soldiers had simply stopped, preparing to counterattack.

Thus, what stood before the French Army was a crooked, twisted Infantry Line.

There was no suspense in how the battle unfolded.

Even the neatly arranged Austrian Infantry Lines could not withstand the ferocious assault of the French Royal Legion, much less this chaotic formation.

In less than twenty minutes, the Infantry Line Prince Coburg had only just assembled collapsed once more.

Prince Coburg had originally hoped to hold out until the elite troops led by Gruber withdrew—he had issued Gruber an order to retreat the moment he discovered the French Army—but he had never expected the French to be so fierce. They had crushed him in barely an hour and a half.

More than a dozen guardsmen unceremoniously hauled Prince Coburg onto a horse and escorted him as he retreated