He Became Napoleon’S Genius Son [EN]: Chapter 514

(514) Wellington’s Gurkha Scouts Breach the Gap

In the later era of the original history’s colonial empires, there was a famous British mercenary unit.

-Shukak!

The knife in his hand was a brutal dagger straight out of the 16th century.

In this era, it was merely a weapon that could be blocked by forming a line and wielding bayonets.

Given a bit of distance and time, it could be finished off with ranged fire, just as Eugene showed the Mamluk cavalry in the Egyptian campaign.

However, right now, all the gunpowder weapons were soaked due to the heavy rain.

“Save me!”

“Fight back! Bayonets! At the ready!”

“Cuirassiers! No, we need cuirass infantry!”

Amidst the chaos and screams of the French Imperial Guard soldiers, Lannes shouted.

“It’s the 19th century! Someone tell these barbarians!”

Suddenly, a Gurkha soldier with a kukri [a curved Nepalese knife] leaped into the middle of the camp.

-Thwack!

The dagger was swung and stopped right in front of the Emperor’s nose.

Of course, not all the soldiers were caught off guard by the sudden melee attack.

Veteran guardsmen struck down the Gurkha soldier with their bayonets.

But killing one enemy soldier didn’t end the assault.

Chief Adjutant Louis Charles Caffarelli shouted.

“Your Majesty, take cover!”

Meanwhile, Emperor Napoleon stood his ground, gritting his teeth.

“Such barbaric tactics. Has the British army gone mad!”

“This is no time to be asking that!”

“No, bring me a sword!”

Napoleon shouted, veins bulging in his neck.

“I may not be a grenadier [an elite infantryman], but I have not learned to retreat on the battlefield. The word ‘retreat’ does not exist in my French dictionary!”

Of course, Napoleon’s French dictionary also contained the word ‘impossible,’ and the word ‘retreat’ as well.

Moreover, artillerymen actually need to be flexible and retreat when necessary.

So, the Emperor was just being stubborn.

But how could anyone force the Emperor?

In an instant, Guard Commander Lannes approached, grabbed Napoleon, and pushed him away.

“What are you doing!”

“Shut up, Napoleon. Duroc, get him away from here.”

“What about you, Marshal?”

Watching Duroc forcibly dragging Napoleon away, Lannes chuckled.

“I am a grenadier, I’ve even led bayonet charges in the Pyrenees [a mountain range between France and Spain]. I’m fundamentally different from His Majesty, who always just shoots cannons!”

In the early days of the Revolution, there was fierce fighting in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain.

A forgotten war compared to the Rhine, Flanders, or Italian campaigns.

It was there that Dugommier, who had also been the commander of Toulon, fought as the commander of the Pyrenees.

Dugommier was the commander who first sent Lannes as reinforcements to Napoleon.

The Guard Commander who had been working under Napoleon’s closest command since then, Lannes, drew his saber and swung it.

-Clang!

The Gurkha soldier’s kukri and the saber clashed, creating a loud noise.

“Hmm, excellent skill.”

“Krawaaaa!”

“I can’t understand what you’re saying, but I guess you’re telling me to die? But, Hindu friend, I can’t do that.”

Lannes twisted his lips into a smile as he pulled back his saber.

“I haven’t seen my newborn youngest daughter, Josephine’s, face yet!”

Shouting the name of his youngest daughter, Josephine Louise, who was born just before the Russian campaign, Lannes swung his saber.

-Thwack!

Soon after, Lannes beheaded the Gurkha soldier and roared at the guardsmen.

“Guardsmen of the Emperor! I, before being a Marshal, was a grenadier! Let us protect the honor of the Grande Armée [Napoleon’s Grand Army] together!”

In fact, Napoleon’s Grande Armée had one weakness.

Due to repeated victories, they rarely had to engage in melee combat.

Only the veterans from the Italian campaigns, who had followed Napoleon since he first commanded an army, had any experience in melee combat.

It was a veteran who responded to Guard Commander Lannes’s call.

A veteran with a sergeant’s chevrons raised his bayonet and shouted.

“Here, there is a grenadier who will follow the General!”

“Oh, a veteran! State your rank and name!”

“Chauvin! A rebel from Marseille, pardoned by the Emperor, and a sergeant-major who followed the Russian Grand Campaign!”

Nicolas Chauvin, the man pardoned by the Emperor in Marseille, charged forward.

“Now, I shall die for the Emperor!”

Lannes whistled and ran after Chauvin.

“Good! Follow Sergeant Chauvin!”

Once momentum builds, an army doesn’t stop.

Even those unfamiliar with close-quarters combat were soldiers of the Grande Armée, with strong arms and firm legs.

Like pikemen, the soldiers with bayonets charged.

-Clang! Clang! Clang!

There is a saying from the era of cold weapons, which even generals in this era don’t know well.

A spear is more advantageous than a sword.

The longer the length, the more powerful it is.

This means that the Grande Armée soldiers with bayonets are superior to the Gurkha soldiers with kukri daggers.

Lannes roared, cutting down enemies with his saber.

“The side that wins this engagement will be the victor of today!”

Of course, wars are rarely decided so simply.

***

Now, the British were also pushing the Sepoy [Indian soldiers serving under European powers] soldiers to the front.

“If you win here, your family will receive land to live on for generations! Run, Sepoys!”

Naturally, the soldiers from mainland Britain only followed behind, not leading the charge.

It wasn’t that the British army was cowardly.

If given orders accompanied by beatings, the British would charge more recklessly than anyone else.

The famous Battle of Balaclava in the original history proves this.

However, the commander-in-chief had ordered them to conserve their strength.

The sight of Infantry Commander Rowland constantly scolding and driving the soldiers forward was like herding sheep.

An unfamiliar face appeared to Wellington, who was watching the front like a hunting dog.

It was Deputy Commander Graham.

“This is a crazy battlefield.”

“Oh, Deputy Commander Graham. Are you just arriving now? By any chance, the cannons?”

“I couldn’t bring them. Don’t tell me, all the cannons are unusable?”

At Graham’s question, Wellington clicked his tongue.

“That’s right. Those treacherous French cavalrymen nailed them all shut and ran away.”

In any case, Eugene had done his part perfectly.

The heavy rain was subsiding, and if the British Indian gunpowder was properly processed with corning, it could be used even when damp.

However, because the muzzles of the cannons were all nailed shut, they couldn’t be used.

It would have been good if they had brought cannons from Brussels, which was in charge of supplies, but the pedantic Graham seemed to have only focused on marching.

Graham reported with a flustered face.

“The follow-up unit is being brought by Deputy Commander Beresford. They will probably arrive around this evening.”

“Send a messenger to tell them to speed up.”

“Shouldn’t we retreat from the battlefield first? Continuing to engage in such a chaotic situation is dangerous, Duke.”

However, Wellington scoffed.

“No, this is the decisive moment. Now, before Napoleon’s main force arrives! We must settle the score here!”

If they gave up a day, the possibility of Napoleon’s main force arriving in the meantime was very high.

Then the opportunity to directly strike and destroy Napoleon would disappear.

Also, Wellington had a disadvantage compared to the original history.

Originally, in the original history, even if Wellington was defeated by Napoleon, he had plenty of room to regroup and fight again.

However, this battle was Wellington’s first and last chance.

Therefore, he had to settle it here.

Suddenly, Graham gestured as if he had made up his mind.

Looking at the gunpowder barrels brought by the follow-up unit, Wellington shouted.

“The gunpowder has arrived! Prepare the ‘Thin Red Line’!”

A very thin red line.

This was the single-line formation formed by the British army.

An extreme horizontal line tactic that no other country dared to imitate.

It was only possible for the British, who had an abundance of gunpowder and could always conduct shooting training.

Generals, including Paget, who was in charge of the vanguard, kicked the soldiers all at once.

“Hey, you slugs! Move!”

“The time for shooting has come! What do we have over these Hindus! Only one thing!”

“Shooting! Only shooting!”

The forces that had been preserved by avoiding close combat now formed ranks.

The British army still mainly used muzzle-loading Brown Bess muskets as their main weapon, not breech-loading rifles.

However, they were preparing to fire with fulminate of mercury faster than units equipped with breech-loading firearms.

-Click, click, click!

Wellington wiped away sweat as he watched the formation being completed.

“Hoo, now I can finally use line infantry.”

“What about the cavalry?”

“It seems they are easily caught up in the enemy. And it seems their morale has already been broken once.”

Looking back at the cavalry ranks that had been utterly shattered, Wellington raised his telescope.

“Of course, if the Gurkha soldiers were to cut off the Emperor’s head with their kukri knives, things would be different.”

If that happened, Wellington would consider retreating altogether.

The mere fact that Napoleon was dead would undoubtedly shake the French Imperial Army.

In fact, he had also realized through this cavalry raid that it would be difficult to fight against Eugene as well.

At that moment, Chief of Staff Clinton clicked his tongue.

“But, that doesn’t seem likely, Your Grace. Look over there.”

Wellington, turning his gaze, let out a cry of admiration and astonishment.

“Those cavalrymen are truly insane!”

Cavalrymen in cuirasses [body armor], like knights, were breaking through the British headquarters and rushing towards the French camp.

***

Murat jumped off his horse.

-Thwack!

A Gurkha soldier fell, and Lannes, who had been lying on the ground in front of him, gasped for breath.

“Murat, I never thought the day would come when I would owe you one.”

“Why, do you have a problem with me?”

“No, you often embarrassed me in front of His Majesty, the Emperor, didn’t you?”

In fact, Lannes and Murat had a falling out during the Egyptian campaign in the original history.

At the time, Napoleon was making so many reckless decisions that they had planned to resist together.

But Murat pretended not to know and slipped away alone.

Currently, neither of them had ever gone to Egypt in the first place, but they still fought a lot in their home country.

Could it be because human nature doesn’t change?

That resentment was being washed away with blood today.

Murat chuckled and shouted.

“Ha! Marshal, there are plenty of subordinates who are dissatisfied with you! Ask Bessières. Does he like you!”

Lannes opened his mouth wide and turned to look at Bessières.

Bessières was pretending not to notice and was running towards a Gurkha soldier.

For some reason, Lannes felt that Murat was right, and he gritted his teeth and stood up.

“I’ll ask him later when this battle is over!”

“Well, I guess you’ll have to go to heaven or hell to ask him.”

“Stop talking nonsense! You think you won’t die yourself!”

Murat chuckled as he grabbed his bayonet and stabbed at the approaching enemy.

“Of course not. Actually, I didn’t tell the King of Spain, but I’m going to get married, have a lot of kids, and then die!”

At that moment.

Bessières, who had approached him, sighed.

With an extremely relieved face.

“It seems you really won’t have to die, Your Grace.”

“What are you talking about? Has the main force arrived?”

“Not exactly, but this is more than the main force.”

Looking at where Bessières was pointing, Lannes jumped up.

“The horse artillery has arrived! Marmont, I love you!”

On Waterloo Hill.

The Grande Armée horse artillery had arrived.

Along with the banner of the Duke of Ragusa, Marmont.