I Became A Genius Of The French Royal Family [EN]: Chapter 243

The calculation was perfect.

Myeongnyang confidently delivered a rousing speech to his soldiers and boldly advanced the army.

“The enemy’s matchlocks have superior range and firepower compared to ours. But a matchlock is still a matchlock. Reloading takes time.”

Myeongnyang was not a brilliant strategist, but a seasoned veteran with experience on many battlefields.

He believed that genius was not necessary to wage war.

All that was needed were standardized tactics and soldiers to carry them out.

“Of course, the enemy’s matchlocks are much more advanced, so their reloading speed is also much faster. But even so, they can only fire three shots for every two we fire.”

In reality, the difference in range and firepower was significant, and the difference in firing speed made the gap even more terrifying.

However, Myeongnyang had no intention of fighting a battle of equals.

Even if 80,000 out of 100,000 soldiers died, if they could take down 10,000 out of the enemy’s 25,000, it would be a victory for them.

After all, they could continue to replenish their forces, while the enemy could not.

If they could reduce the enemy’s forces in this battle, they could continue to deploy newly recruited soldiers in stages.

If everything went according to plan, the enemy’s strength would be exhausted before their offensive reached its limit.

“Great warriors of the Central Plains! Do not fear death! His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is with us!”

Even if their training was inferior and their combat power was lacking, the overwhelming numerical superiority alone influenced morale.

The Qing army charged with great momentum.

Rather than relying on cavalry as in the previous war, they adopted a simple and clear tactic of overwhelming with infantry-based human wave attacks.

The French army, entrenched in the distance, came into view of the Qing army, which was lined up in dense formations.

“…Hmm? Something’s not right with those guys…”

Doubt flickered in Myeongnyang’s eyes as he realized that the French army’s formation was different from what he had heard.

“Are they lying down? Why?”

The method of lying down to aim when firing a matchlock was somewhat common, but the posture of shooting while lying prone had long been considered inefficient.

Shooting while prone significantly increased the accuracy of the first shot, but after firing one shot, the shooter had to readjust to reload.

It was common sense that reloading speed was the most important thing when operating musketeers.

Moreover, with soldiers lying prone like that, the gaps between them would widen, making it difficult to concentrate firepower.

It seemed unlikely that the French infantry would have forgotten such basic principles.

In any case, the Qing army had no choice.

If the enemy had made a misjudgment, they would relentlessly bite and cling to them.

“Charge! Char…”

Kiiiiiiiiing!

At that moment, a chilling sound that drowned out the voices of the officers shouting at the top of their lungs, along with a rain of disaster, fell upon the soldiers’ heads.

Kwakwakwakwang!

“Ugh, Uwaaaagh!”

“What is this!”

“Save me! It’s the enemy’s artillery!”

“Counterattack! Counterattack!”

The French army’s rockets, boasting a range far beyond any weapon the Qing possessed, plunged down relentlessly.

The French had thoroughly modified the Congreve rockets [early type of military rocket], which the British army had seized in Mysore [a kingdom in southern India], for the purpose of demoralizing the enemy.

The long range, the enormous flames visible at the moment of launch, and the deafening noise until impact were enough to instill great fear in those who saw it for the first time.

Above all, the advantage of this rocket weapon was that, unlike cannons, it did not require a complex launcher, making installation and firing easy.

However, the terribly low accuracy was the biggest drawback, but thankfully, the Qing army was a massive force of 100,000 men packed tightly together.

Even if they closed their eyes and fired randomly, someone was bound to fall.

“It’s the Franks’ [European people] new-style cannon!”

“What are our artillerymen doing!”

“Cao Nima! [A vulgar Chinese curse] The range isn’t enough, what do you want us to do!”

“Charge! Charge!”

The range of the Hongyi cannons [Dutch-made cannons] used by the Qing meant they had to advance much further to reach effective range.

The Qing army had no choice but to continue advancing, even if they were being unilaterally attacked.

Myeongnyang knew this and desperately encouraged his soldiers, personally leading the troops at the front.

He felt that if he didn’t do this, he wouldn’t be able to control the poorly trained soldiers.

“Don’t be afraid! They’re not aiming! If we close the distance quickly, there’s no need to fear such bluffing weapons!”

Perhaps it was thanks to his shouting until his throat bled that the Qing army continued to move forward, even as the French new weapons relentlessly struck them.

The distance gradually narrowed, and soon they would be within range of the enemy’s matchlocks.

The commanders of each unit, who had been firmly warned by Myeongnyang in advance, constantly emphasized to their soldiers so that they would not lose their will to fight.

“I repeat, the enemy’s matchlocks have a much longer range than ours! But don’t be afraid! Their rate of fire is not much different from ours…”

Tatatatang!

As if to say, ‘Don’t talk nonsense.’

“Keuh, Keueok!”

A tremendous barrage of bullets poured into the bodies of the commanders and soldiers who were at the front.

“W-what! I thought we were out of range!”

“Cao! Nothing you say is right!”

“Are these bastards just trying to use us as bullet shields and saying whatever they want?”

The reason the soldiers had been moving forward so far was because they believed the general’s words that they could eventually win, no matter how great the damage.

But if that belief were to waver, wouldn’t they just be dying like dogs here?

Of course, the person most embarrassed by the current situation was none other than Myeongnyang, who was in overall command.

“D-d-d-don’t panic! No matter how long the range, matchlocks take a long time to reload…!”

By now, even he didn’t find his own words convincing.

And…

Tatang! Tatatatatang!

“Aaaagh!”

“Slow my ass!”

“Screw this! I can’t die like this! I want to live!”

Contrary to the original plan of overwhelming the reloading speed with a human wave attack.

The enemy’s reloading speed seemed to be less than half of theirs, even at the shortest estimate.

They could easily fire five shots for every two shots fired on their side.

Moreover, the range of their guns was several times that of theirs, and it seemed to be comparable to cannons.

Seeing them firing at them as if they were targets in a shooting range, the question of why they were shooting while lying prone was also answered.

They were reloading the bullets into the rear of the gun, not the front like they did.

That’s why they could continue to reload and fire while maximizing their accuracy by shooting while lying prone.

Seeing all of this with his own eyes, he was terrifyingly aware of how great the gap between them and the French was.

This was a battle they could not win from the start.

Could they have won even if they had brought four times, or even ten times, the number of troops?

Myeongnyang, who now understood the situation, could not hide his terribly distorted expression.

“C-charge… charge…”

“Cao! You go charge!”

“You lying bastards! Go to hell!”

When the commanders lost their will to fight, it was naturally conveyed to the soldiers.

No, in the first place, it was impossible to control these soldiers since the operation had gone so wrong.

These were not people who had burning patriotism or were prepared to throw away their lives like trash from the beginning.

So how could they be controlled in this situation?

Moreover, the soldiers’ words were all true.

How could it be that none of the enemy’s weapons matched the information he had received?

‘Those damn military intelligence bastards. Could they have deliberately given me the wrong information?’

He had never even heard of that strange weapon that seemed to have a range at least three times longer than their cannons.

If he had known that such a thing existed, would he have advanced in such a dense formation from the beginning?

On top of that, the range and reloading speed of the guns were also wrong.

At this point, shouldn’t it be considered intentional?

It hadn’t been many years since the defeat in the Opium War, so how could they have deployed so many new weapons so quickly?

Yes. This was clearly intentional information omission.

And soon, a question naturally arose.

Why did the military intelligence deliberately give him the wrong information?

What was the point of deliberately making him lose?

‘Even His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is here… What would they do if His Highness were to be harmed in the event of an absurd defeat…? No, wait.’

An even more frightening assumption than the chaotic battlefield situation flashed through his mind.

What if this was a plot by some powerful officials to weed out the Crown Prince and his factions?

Originally, there was no way the Crown Prince could be harmed in this battle.

From the beginning, he was only supposed to be in the safest rear, and if the battle situation turned unfavorable, the guards would immediately take him and flee.

But if the information was so wrong, there might be people who had been in contact with the enemy from the start.

If something were to happen to the Crown Prince here, there would inevitably be a significant change in the Qing’s succession structure.

‘Are those trashy bastards trying to enthrone the young Third Prince and seize control of the government…?’

The sight of soldiers spitting blood and collapsing was no longer visible to Myeongnyang.

He had to return to Beijing as quickly as possible to confirm the truth.

Already, a huge historical novel surrounding them had been completed in Myeongnyang’s mind.

※※※

“…What are those guys doing?”

Napoleon’s eyes were filled with dismay as he watched the Qing army’s formation collapse in disarray.

“Is there no commander over there? No, what are they doing right now?”

100,000 versus 25,000.

He thought there was a 0% chance of losing, but he thought he could try various tactics depending on what the other side did.

How hard had he trained his soldiers and instilled new tactics and strategies into the officers?

With the large-scale introduction of new weapons, the nature of the battle had completely changed from before, so there were many things to experiment with.

In that respect, this battle was a golden opportunity to put his ideas into practice.

He had spent the night discussing with Davout, anticipating the opponent’s movements and preparing to deal with any situation perfectly.

But…

They suddenly collapsed without even reaching their front, and the command system collapsed.

At this point, it was no longer a battle but a massacre, and tactical value didn’t matter anymore.

“My excitement is fading away…”

He was even ashamed of himself for thinking of such a country as a sleeping lion.

“If I had brought Murat, I could have wiped out the enemy’s leadership. It’s a bit of a shame.”

Napoleon sighed lightly at Davout’s words.

“Even such a great power ends up like this if it meets the wrong ruler.”

“If our France had not been reformed, we might have been in a similar situation.”

Yes. After all, a country needs to meet a good leader.