French Empire: But Napoleon IV

Chapter 69: A Clash of Two World-Class Army Forces

At 10:20 a.m., the Prussian army's first full-scale offensive ended. At the three main crossings, the Prussian army encountered fierce resistance from the French army, and the battle situation can be described as heavy casualties.

Of course, the Prussian army did not come away empty-handed. At the three secondary crossings, Prussia successfully established several small beachheads, each with a small number of troops, about a battalion in size.

Clearly, this outcome did not satisfy Wilhelm. Crown Prince Frederick Wilhelm, looking at the battle report in the command post, had a very gloomy expression.

In front of William was a cup of coffee that had gone completely cold, but he didn't drink a drop.

"After several hours of attack, we lost more than 15,000 men, but only captured a few insignificant ferry crossings."

The combined strength of his Third and Fourth Army Corps was only 20 men.

This loss of about one-thirteenth of their forces was a painful blow for William. Crucially, replenishing Prussia's troop strength was also proving difficult.

There were still over 100,000 French troops in Metz, which hampered the 180,000-strong Prussian First and Second Corps. These two elite corps were simply unable to send more troops to assist them in the battle.

The entire German Confederation, including South Bavaria, Württemberg, Hesse, and Baden, now has a total of only 110 million troops, of which only 70 are front-line field troops.

It's impossible to deploy all 70 troops to France. In the short term, it's unrealistic for our two corps to receive more support from the homeland and engage in a war of attrition with France.

"The French resistance was far more tenacious than we had imagined. Our intelligence was wrong; they had far more supplies and ammunition than we had anticipated."

Alberto, the Crown Prince of Saxony and commander of the newly established Fourth Legion and the Meuse Legion, stood aside discussing matters with William.

Although both are crown princes, William's status is clearly higher. After all, Prussia's position in Germany has essentially become the overlord of Germany after kicking Austria out of the country.

"Your Highness, according to the prisoners' confessions, Crown Prince Eugène in Paris delivered a large amount of supplies to the French army half a month ago, including 35,000 Châtebourg rifles and 1.25 million kilograms of gunpowder."

French soldiers now have an average of 160 rounds of ammunition each, while our soldiers only have 60. Furthermore, they have more Mitrajoz machine guns than we anticipated, a total of 72.

Previously, Prussia's firepower estimates for France were based on data on supplies provided by the Ministry of War to spies in Paris.

Prussia had a deep penetration into France, and in the field of intelligence, Prussia was also a force that suppressed France.

Historically, while France was debating whether to advance on Metz, Prussia learned of Paris's dilemma and sent a false message from Berlin, saying that, apart from the troops besieging Metz, the Prussian army was determined to advance entirely on Paris.

In reality, the Prussian 3rd Army continued to pursue McMahon's army and made a bold maneuver to the right, working with the newly formed 4th Army to besiege McMahon's French army, along with Napoleon III, in Sedan.

This clearly demonstrates Prussia's overwhelming intelligence advantage over France. This event didn't occur because of Eugène's presence, but Prussia's intelligence system doesn't disappear just because something didn't happen.

However, Prussia was too focused on Paris, which meant that the supplies Eugene purchased outside of Paris were obviously not included in their calculations.

Eugene's supplies, combined with those from the Army Ministry, were enough to restore a certain level of combat capability to the Xialong Legion.

Having misjudged the French army's fighting strength and supplies, Frederick Wilhelm was unlikely to admit his mistake.

Faced with Alberto, who was slow to realize the situation and only told him about it after the battle, William could only give a brief and evasive account of the matter.

"I know, but we cannot back down. Marshal Moltke has already sent me a telegram saying that the Paris Army, calculated at two months, will be able to enter the battlefield in one month."

"Once this army of 12 men enters the battlefield, the entire war situation could be reversed, so we must break through the Meuse River defense line within half a month."

The All-Germany coalition forces did have strong mobilization capabilities and more combat troops than France, but now they were fighting on French territory. The coalition forces were, after all, a coalition forces, not a unified nation.

Each participating country had to maintain a certain number of troops stationed there, and Prussia also had to be wary of Austria and Britain, and even Russia to the east.

Britain and Austria are now both producing Chassepot rifles and directly supplying them to France, which already shows the two countries' stances.

Fighting on French soil, Prussia couldn't afford to gamble everything on a desperate offensive. Those who could actually enter French territory knew their own situation best; William estimated it to be around 60, at most 70.

France's two frontline corps, after receiving reinforcements from various regions, now number nearly 40 men. If the Paris Legion were to join the battle, the two fronts could very well become locked in a stalemate.

Keep in mind that they were fighting on French soil, and with France further mobilizing, a protracted war was not what Prussia wanted.

Therefore, William went to the map, and after studying it carefully, he gave Alberto his orders.

"Order the 5th and 6th Armies to continue feint attacks in the north and central regions to tie down the main French forces. Order the 11th Army and the 1st Bavarian Army to concentrate all their forces and attack the Saint-Michel crossing in the south."

This time, I will commit all reserves, including the Imperial Guard; we will take it at all costs.

A single fierce attack would result in the loss of more than 10,000 men. Who could afford to wait that long? William decided to directly target a large ferry crossing, attempting to take it all in one fell swoop.

At 11:40 a.m., the Prussian army launched a general offensive on the St. Michel crossing. This time, Friedrich Wilhelm deployed more than 60,000 soldiers and 240 artillery pieces.

To this end, the Prussian Guards, the most elite troops of the Prussian army and subordinate to the Fourth Army Corps, were also brought in. William intended to use the precious Guards as a strike force.

The Prussian artillery fire intensified, unleashing over 20,000 shells at the Saint-Michel crossing in a short period.

Each cannon fired more than 100 shells per hour on average, and this terrifying firepower turned the entire ferry area into scorched earth.

Every inch of the ground at the Saint-Michel ferry crossing had been turned upside down by artillery shells; not a single intact tree could be found.

The French troops stationed here were the 14th Regiment of the 7th Army. This regiment originally had 1,500 men, but after the artillery barrage, only less than 800 men remained.

The regimental commander was killed in the shelling just now, and a captain is now in command.