For the next two days, Alvizi spent his time in utter shock.
The French Army was moving at a speed that far exceeded all military conventions.
On the day following the collapse of the Fourth Army, the French Army appeared before the Third Army and launched an attack.
Initially, when he received the battle report, Alvizi thought it was the scattered forces of the French Army, which had been popping up like locusts recently, and he only expected the assembly of the Third Army to be slightly delayed.
Unexpectedly, by mid-morning, the Third Army sent an urgent report, stating they were under siege by a vast number of French troops and could no longer hold out.
Alvizi hurriedly redeployed the troops that had been gathered to face Frost decisively towards the direction of the Third Army, only to find that the retreating soldiers from the Third Army were arriving at his headquarters in succession.
The Third Army had been overwhelmed by the French Army.
However, Alvizi adjusted his plans overnight, assuming that the French Army would stop to reorganize after annihilating the Third Army and would require at least a day to continue battlefield maneuvers.
Yet, as soon as dawn broke the next day, a large contingent of the French Army appeared before his own troops.
As an old general nearing seventy, Alvizi had military conventions deeply ingrained in his mind; he simply could not comprehend the actions of the French Army.
Watching the suddenly appeared French troops, Alvizi muttered in front of everyone, "They actually... after defeating the Third Army, they didn’t even hold a victory feast or reorganize, but directly launched a night raid on us? How is this possible?"
No one could answer Alvizi.
Before Alvizi could find an answer, the French Army began even more baffling maneuvers: they deployed in columns to attack!
Despite being deeply shocked, Alvizi quickly organized his artillery to bombard the French columns.
The French troops charging in columns immediately suffered heavy casualties.
Normally, a solid bullet rolling through a horizontal formation might kill up to six people, as there are three rows in such a formation, and the cannonball piercing through might kill at most two in one row.
You physically cannot expect a solid bullet to kill three people in the same row; after all, the diameter of the cannonball is limited, at most grazing two people.
But with cannonballs striking a column, the situation was entirely different.
From Alvizi’s observation, a cannonball hitting the front of a column would take away at least ten French soldiers.
Sometimes, a cannonball might even pass through too many bodies and lose its momentum, falling to the ground.
Generally, a column consisting of a rank had around fifty people, a number large due to the large configuration of the French forces.
Losing one-fifth of the forces at once should theoretically cause a collapse, but the French Army did not.
The French Army would only collapse if two cannonballs resulted in twenty casualties.
Then it becomes a simple math problem – Alvizi’s main force, having thirty cannons, if all fired accurately in a volley without hitting the same column with three cannonballs, a volley could take out 15 ranks.
However, the French forces currently attacking Alvizi boasted over forty ranks, with continuous new ranks joining the battlefield.
A simple calculation would reveal that the French Army would surely break through the coalition’s formation for close combat.
Alvizi consoled himself: "We can still rely on the infantry’s volley fire!"
He had just finished speaking when the volley fire began.
After the first round of volley fire, many French soldiers fell. The Austrians had undergone thorough training, and their shooting skills were quite good.
But the French troops showed no reaction at all.
Alvizi watched in confusion as the events unfolded in front of him, until he finally realized what was happening.
The column charge meant that when the front rank fell, the rear ranks barely felt it.
Normally, when the front rank of a three-row horizontal formation is shot down, the second and third rows would be affected and start to fear.
But a column formation had much more than three rows; it had ten full ranks, and thus the casualties in the first rank significantly lessened the morale impact on the others!
Alvizi: "Such an unreasonable thing actually happened..."
At that moment, Duke Brunswick still maintained a fairly optimistic attitude, saying, "It seems the French have discovered a way of attacking that disregards casualties, but canister shells will break them apart!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the canister shells were fired.
The French Army column that was directly hit by the canister shells saw the front third of their line collapse.
The remaining troops saw the dire situation and immediately began to retreat.
However, the problem returned—the French Army was too numerous.
Even if one row or two rows were scattered, there were still countless French troops charging at the coalition!
Then, the most desperate event occurred.
Frost’s Military Flag appeared on the other end of the battlefield.
The French soldiers, initially in disarray, immediately turned around and started marching back upon seeing the flag.
Alvizi, looking at Frost’s distant Military Flag, thought to himself, "That’s not the Eagle Flag, is it? I don’t see the Eagle Emblem?"
He quickly dismissed the thought and turned to ask Brunswick, "Is there any method to repel the enemy now? Like having the Artillery take a shot to strike down Frost?"
Brunswick raised a thumb, measured the distance, and shook his head, "Frost is wise; he has stopped beyond the range of our Cannon."
In this era, the range of Cannons wasn’t that far, reaching 1200 meters only with an increased charge, with usual Cannon range being under 1000 meters.
The distance to Frost now, conservatively speaking, would take Cavalry some time to make a decapitating charge.
Alvizi: "Wasn’t it said that Frost likes to charge personally? Why isn’t he charging himself?"
Duke Brunswick just shrugged his shoulders.
Bertier: "Please don’t personally lead the charge anymore! If you get injured, even if it’s just being unmounted by the shock, our troops’ morale will be impacted!"
Anning: "Alright, alright, I won’t charge! Stop nagging, my ears are growing calluses! Are you my mom?"
Vanni: "Come have some red wine instead."
Anning sighed: "Fine, set up the table, I’ll have a glass. If I sit down, the Chief of Staff won’t worry about me personally charging into battle, right?"
Anning suddenly came up with a whimsical idea, picked up a chair Vanni had just put out, and handed it to Bertier: "Check it to make sure it won’t run away!"
Bertier, with a stern face, actually checked the chair to confirm that it was an inanimate object before giving it back to Anning.
Anning was speechless: "Did you really check it? I’m not a real Mage, I can’t make the chair run on its own!"
Bertier: "Hard to say. Now the enemy’s soldiers seem to believe that you can summon the Roman legions."
Anning laughed: "What nonsense! They really think I’m the reincarnation of Caesar? And then the Roman legions will travel through time and space to pledge loyalty to me?"
Would there also be a narrator’s explanation during the charge: The unending loyalty is precisely the manifestation of Caesar’s kingship...
While Anning was watching the countless French troops fiercely attacking Alvizi’s coalition forces on the battlefield, the Special Commissioner Fouché received something he just custom-ordered from a local Goldsmith.
He looked at the item, very satisfied: "Very good, excellent!"
Replicating the Roman-style Eagle Emblem, reflecting the firelight from the furnace.
Fouché: "The first batch of a total of 100 Eagle Flags, to be completed as soon as possible!"