Chapter 210 Good News (Part 1)

Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

The news of the victory in Alexandria and Beirut reached Vienna, and Franz was curious why Muhammad Ali did not surrender.

If the war continued, not only would Muhammad Ali's government not be able to be saved, but even the whole of Egypt might be annexed by the Ottoman Empire.

This was certainly not because Ali was unwilling to surrender, but because the British did not want the Egyptians to surrender. They wanted to weaken Ali's power as much as possible, and it would be best if they could support a puppet loyal to them.

In this way, France's investment would be lost and it would be excluded from the ranks of the Near East hegemony.

In theory, there is no problem with this, but there is a big trouble, that is, Egypt, which is too weak, may re-enter the Ottoman territory instead of a vassal state.

This is naturally no problem for the British, but it is a big problem for Austria and France.

Franz thinks that Tripoli and Tunisia are very suitable for Austrian colonies because they are close and have great development potential.

But once the Ottoman Empire regains Egypt, the two territories bordering it, Tripoli and Tunisia, will inevitably return to the Ottoman sphere of influence.

If Austria forcibly colonizes these two areas, or establishes some kind of relationship with these two lands through the upper class, will Britain start another Turkish-Egyptian war under the banner of maintaining the integrity of the Ottoman territory?

The French are worried about the same as the Austrians. Algeria in their hands was also the territory of the Ottoman Empire in the past.

Moreover, the French also have ambitions for Tunisia, and have huge interests in Egypt. Once the Ottomans abolish the government of Muhammad Ali, the French investment will be lost, which is unacceptable in any case.

Syrian battlefield.

With the melodious grenadiers' march, the Redwood Army A went up.

General Gabrentz saw the British attacking, and he also ordered the Austrian army to start playing music to prepare for the attack. What should I say, Austria is worthy of being a country of art, and even has several kinds of military music.

The soldiers stepped on the messy drums and began to move forward.

The coalition's skirmishers quickly dealt with the Egyptian army's light infantry, and the main line infantry of both sides finally faced each other.

However, in front of the coalition with advantages in artillery fire and skirmishers, the Egyptians' ranks were incomplete from the beginning. After entering the volley phase, this disadvantage became more obvious, and the coalition's soldiers were of higher quality and better equipped.

In contrast, the Egyptian ranks, out of fear, fired the first shot, and then the Egyptian line, which was still two hundred meters away from the coalition's ranks, began to shoot.

This kind of shooting undoubtedly has extremely limited lethality. Only a burst of white smoke rose, and only a few extremely unlucky soldiers in the coalition's ranks were knocked down, but their positions would be immediately filled by their comrades behind.

The commander of the Egyptian line had to order the soldiers to quickly reload bullets while continuing to shoot. Looking at the coalition's line approaching step by step, the Egyptian officer simply broke the jar and ordered "free shooting!"

Colonel Carter saw the stupid way the Egyptians fought, and he knew that the battle was won. So he asked the soldiers to bring tables and chairs and coffee.

"Respected General Gabrenz, do you need a cup of coffee?"

At that time, many officers were nobles. It was common for commanders to take their mistresses to lunch while fighting on the front line.

"Thank you, please give me a cup."

Colonel Carter personally poured a cup of coffee for Gabrenz and asked.

"Do you need sugar?"

Then he realized that he had done something stupid. Gabrenz was putting sugar cubes directly into his mouth. The two sides looked at each other awkwardly.

Finally, the soldiers of the coalition army reached a distance of 50 steps under the rain of bullets. (The Austrian army stopped at 70 steps. At that time, the styles of various European countries were different, and the commanders' commands were also different.)

"Ready!"

The black muzzles of the coalition soldiers were instantly pointed at the Egyptian soldiers who were desperately loading bullets.

"Aim!"

"Shoot!"

The coalition army's queue was flashing with fire and continuous gunfire. After the smoke, a layer of Egyptian soldiers was directly cleared.

The Egyptian army's front several lines collapsed directly because hundreds or thousands of people were killed at the same time. This effect was too shocking.

However, the coalition forces did not stop firing. After the first row fired a volley, they gave up their positions and the second row continued firing. There was another round of volleys, and this time more Egyptians fell.

The Egyptian army behind was already badly bombed by the shells, and seeing the front team being cleared out row by row, fear had enveloped them. If it weren't for the supervisors behind who kept killing people, these people would have fled long ago.

After the second round of volleys, the coalition soldiers who had just fired squatted down to reload, and the soldiers behind continued to fire.

After three rounds of volleys, there were no more people left in the Egyptian line that had initially encountered the coalition forces, and the Egyptian army behind them, which was still hundreds of meters away from the coalition forces, started firing again.

In terms of the accuracy of the smoothbore muskets and the training level of the Egyptians, the coalition soldiers could load bullets leisurely.

Another round of cycles began again, and Ibrahim wiped the sweat from his forehead. His most elite troops were like scarecrows that could not move and were wantonly harvested by the other side.

Although he was unwilling to accept this reality, he had to consider himself. If he continued to fight with the coalition forces, he himself might be captured.

So Ibrahim took the lead in the reverse charge on his beloved camel, and at the same time he also gave the order to retreat. Although Ibrahim's order was to retreat, the retreat quickly turned into a rout.

At this time, the 600 hussars brought by Gablenz finally came into play. The cavalry rushed out from the flanks and prepared to cut off the fleeing enemy troops.

You must know that the formed infantry is the nemesis of the cavalry, but the threat of the fleeing infantry to the cavalry is almost zero.

The hollow square formation can even be said to have ended the era of cavalry dominating the battlefield, but without formation, it is difficult for infantry holding rifles alone to hit high-speed moving cavalry.

Not to mention, most of the bullets in the Egyptian infantry guns were empty, and they were overtaken by the hussars before they even had time to mount their bayonets.

These hussars are natural butchers, especially when facing infantry who don't even have bayonets.

The cavalry raised their sabers on their horses and harvested the poor Egyptian soldiers with inertia. However, most Egyptian soldiers chose not to resist, but to find ways to outrun the people around them. They seemed to think that they would be safe in this way.

But one thing they seem to have forgotten is that horses have four legs and they only have two. The cavalry repeatedly charged into the Egyptian army's camp, and the coalition infantry also fixed their bayonets and began to charge.

Everyone must have heard of the famous saying of Suvorov, the famous Russian military commander, "The bullet is a fool, the bayonet is a hero."

However, many people don’t know that he once said, “If you fight with a bayonet, you must keep bullets. If you fight with a bayonet without bullets, you will be worse than a fool.”

The coalition soldiers held bayonets and launched a mass charge. At this time, the Egyptian army, which was bombarded by artillery fire, called out by skirmishers, endured several rounds of volleys, and was attacked by cavalry, had long since lost morale.

The coalition soldiers were not fussy about bayoneting. As long as they didn't kneel down and throw away their weapons, they would just stab them with one or two swords. Even those Egyptian soldiers who threw away their weapons and surrendered were inevitably hit by gun butts.

Treat prisoners of war well? nonexistent! In this era, there is not even the Geneva Convention. Whether to hold back or not depends entirely on the soldiers' self-consciousness.