French Empire: But Napoleon IV

Chapter 71 The fighting continues; my army is no less elite.

The morale of the Imperial Guard was extremely high, and they fought with great ferocity, quickly breaking through the Prussian army's first line of defense.

The soldiers of the Prussian 11th Corps, intimidated by the Guards' momentum, began to retreat, having already lost their footing. Boze quickly mobilized reserves to counterattack, and a fierce tug-of-war ensued at the Saint-Michel crossing.

The position changed hands repeatedly, and the entire land at the ferry crossing was stained with blood.

The battle continued until evening, when the Prussian army, relying on its artillery and manpower advantages established by the successive crossings, finally held the Saint-Michel crossing.

Although the French counterattack was unsuccessful, it inflicted heavy casualties on the Prussian army, forcing them to halt their advance.

In this battle, the Royal Guard suffered more than two thousand casualties, the heaviest losses this elite force had suffered since the Franco-Prussian War.

As night fell, the Meuse River battlefield, which had been fiercely fighting all day, finally quieted down for a while. Both the Prussian and French armies were exhausted.

Only the occasional sporadic gunfire and the groans of wounded soldiers reminded people of the fierce battles that had taken place on this land during the day.

On the Verdun front, Dupont and Louis sat in the trenches, silently eating their dinner. Tonight's meal consisted of white bread and stew, a diet they had been having for several days.

This last meal was much better than the previous simple black bread, but they had no appetite at all.

"We've lost half our men today." Taking a bite of his white bread, even Louis, a true veteran, couldn't help but sigh. "Le Maire is dead. He was a good man. Just the other day, Le Maire told me that after the war, he was going back to the countryside to marry his fiancée."

DuPont, who was eating his stew bite by bite, remained silent in response to Louis's remarks, only nodding quietly.

DuPont was reminded of Lemaître, the private who always liked to tell jokes. Just the day before yesterday, when they were chatting, Lemaître had shared a piece of chocolate with him.

Now, this cheerful recruit has become a cold corpse, lying in the mud outside the trench.

"Don't overthink it, kid."

Seeing DuPont's distress, Louis, who was also feeling uneasy, patted DuPont on the shoulder, hoping to make him feel better.

"We're still alive, that's enough. There's a tough battle waiting for us tomorrow, so don't think too much about it."

From September 2 to September 8, the Prussian army launched wave after wave of attacks on the Meuse River defense line.

William used the Saint-Michel crossing as a bridgehead to launch continuous attacks on the French defenses. At the same time, he continued to launch feint attacks at other crossings to tie down French forces.

Inspired by Napoleon III and Marshal McMahon, the French soldiers displayed astonishing fighting spirit, holding their ground in the trenches and repelling every Prussian attack.

During these seven days of fighting, countless moving and inspiring stories unfolded.

At the Dinant ferry crossing, a French machine gun squad held its position for three days and three nights, repelling more than a dozen attacks by the Prussian army.

When they ran out of bullets, they destroyed the machine gun, then charged at the Prussian troops with bayonets in hand, ultimately sacrificing themselves heroically.

When Prussian soldiers captured the position, they found that the machine gun barrels were burned and deformed, and thousands of spent shell casings were piled up next to it.

At the Verdun crossing, a young soldier named Henry Dumont, after all his comrades had been killed, held his position alone for two hours and killed more than thirty Prussian soldiers.

In the end, this elite soldier did not live to enjoy his honor; he was hit by a Prussian artillery shell during battle and died a heroic death.

When the French army recaptured the position, they found that he was still holding a Châteppé rifle, with the last bullet in the chamber that had not yet been fired.

.......

On the battlefield of the Battle of the Meuse, where two legions with nearly 20 troops clashed and a total of almost 40 men fought, Nathan visited the front lines every day to comfort the wounded soldiers and award them medals and bonuses.

Napoleon III's health deteriorated, and he coughed more and more frequently, sometimes even coughing up blood in front of his soldiers.

He was supposed to die of illness in 73, and at this moment, he already showed some signs of being terminally ill.

Despite his desire to escape, Nathan continued to go to the front lines every day. He was willing to go with the army to Sedan to rescue the Metz Legion and never lacked the courage to take a desperate gamble to save his political career.

The appearance of the French emperor greatly boosted the morale of the French soldiers.

On one occasion, during one of Nathan's inspections, a wounded soldier grabbed Nathan's hand, trying to persuade the emperor to return to the rear.

He could tell that the other party came from a farming family and was one of his core soldiers, so he replied in a very amiable tone.

"Your Majesty, why did you come here in person? It's too dangerous here."

"My soldiers are bleeding and dying here, how can I hide behind them? I am with you, we fight together, and together we will drive the Prussians out of France."

While fierce fighting raged on the front lines, Eugene was not idle either. He still had nearly 3000 million francs left to spend, and it was uncertain whether he would have the opportunity to use the money later.

It's bitter at first, then sweet. Whether it will be sweet afterward is still unknown, but if it's sweet first and then bitter, then the sweetness is real and tangible.

Therefore, Eugène once again spared no expense, continuously procuring supplies from Paris and as far as Britannia and as close as Burgundy to send supplies and reinforcements to the Meuse front.

On average, dozens of wagons arrive daily at the Meuse River front, laden with flour, ammunition, medicine, and military uniforms.

Because some railways were sabotaged by Prussian spies, or because the transportation pressure was too great to handle the supplies, most of the purchased supplies could only be transported by horse-drawn carts and donkey carts.

Eugène mobilized all the carriages he could, and even requisitioned some of the private carriages of the Orleans and Bourbon royalist nobles.

Since they were going to fall out anyway, why bother with the superficial relationship now? With this in mind, Eugene showed no mercy to the other party.

In addition to the need for supplies, Eugène also recruited 5,000 volunteers from Paris to form a medical team to go to the front lines to treat wounded soldiers.

These volunteers included doctors, nurses, and many ordinary Parisians. Most of them were secret police officers, and investigations revealed they might have ties to the Republican Party.

Doctors and nurses were exactly the kind of talent France was in dire need of at the time. Eugène didn’t want these people to be mistakenly killed during the subsequent suppression, so he simply gathered them together and, under the pretext of serving the country and fighting against Prussia, threw them into the front-line army.

This is to protect their lives and to enable them to play their role in advance. Even if they die on the front lines, it can be considered that they have contributed their share to France.

If they hadn't died, by the time they returned to Paris, the matter would have been largely settled.