xymnovel Chapter 95 The "Revolutionary" with a Exploded Mindset, Cavalry Attack
Chapter 95 The "Revolutionary" with a Exploded Mindset, Cavalry Attack
Compared to the left and right flanks, which collapsed early on, the battle in the central flank, overseen by the military police, was much more intense.
The battle lasted a full two and a half hours (?), during which the Self-Defense Forces suffered more than 3000 casualties, yet they failed to even break through the first barricade of the Tuileries Palace.
Trosch, feeling his seat swaying precariously and unable to sit still even for a whole night, looked at the mountains of corpses on the battlefield with an extremely anxious expression on his face.
Driven by anxiety, Troch began pacing back and forth involuntarily. By this time, news of equally failed attempts on both sides had reached his ears.
Trochet, who was originally full of confidence, genuinely believed that there was only one guard regiment in the Tuileries Palace because of Eugène's lack of information about him.
Faced with his massive army of 20,000, a single regiment of resistance was destined to be easily defeated. However, the situation was completely unexpected by Trochet, and the Paris police actually retreated into the Tuileries Palace.
"Damn it, what's going on?"
Troch, so angry that his liver ached, threw his scepter to the ground without regard for etiquette.
"That bastard Eugène, he actually hid so many troops in the Tuileries Palace! Shouldn't the police have scattered by now?"
Rather than being caught up in the situation, Troche was either unaware or, more accurately, intentionally avoiding the correct answer.
Standing next to Troch, Blanqui, having been more of an observer in this battle, came up with more ideas.
The more Blanqui thought about it, the more his brow furrowed, and the stronger his ominous premonition grew.
"President Troch, something's not right."
Blanquil's unease grew stronger, and he was even considering going back to renegotiate a solution. He no longer cared about winning the political battle.
Blanqui leaned closer to Troch, glanced around at the equally worried Republicans who were clearly not thinking too much, and then lowered his voice to speak.
"Why hasn't Eugène shown himself with so many troops? Why isn't he attacking us first, instead hiding in the Tuileries Palace to defend? This is very unusual, Mr. President. I think we can..."
"This is not the time to think about such things, Mr. Blanqui. I urge you to lead your men and attack from the rear gardens. No matter the cost, the Tuileries Palace must be taken before dawn. Otherwise, we are all doomed."
Good intentions were misunderstood; the radical Blanqui intended to abandon the struggle, but Troche refused to listen.
The interim president, whose position was in jeopardy, looked at Blanqui and felt as if the other man was showing off in front of him.
That's outrageous, Blanqui! I'm still the President of the Republic. I am the President, remember that, Blanqui!
Troch, who was conjuring up a whole little TV series in his mind, increasingly felt that the other party was showing off. Unable to stand this kind of showing off, Troch interrupted Blanqui's "showing off" and directly used his presidential power to assign the other party a task as well.
Blanqui, whose words had been cut off by Troch, opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but after seeing Troch's murderous gaze, and with a sense of relief that the incident was also Troch's fault, he swallowed his words.
Troch was frantic. Perhaps, perhaps the situation wasn't so bad. Once Troch and Bonaparte were both exhausted, he could easily reap the rewards of this struggle.
With this in mind, Blanqui turned around and counted two thousand men, and the armed workers who came to support them successively, and they circled around to the back of the Tuileries Palace.
However, as the Republic's army adjusted its deployment and prepared to launch a new round of general offensive, Eugene would not give them the opportunity to continue the attack.
The French Crown Prince finally got his backup plan. The sound of rapid hoofbeats reached the ears of the Republican army, as well as the police force and Eugène.
The sound of hooves grew closer and closer; the thunderous roar of a large number of horses shook the entire city of Paris.
Realizing they were outside the city, the two cavalry divisions sprang into action. Troch, sensing something was terribly wrong, looked incredulously in the direction from which the sound of hooves was coming.
On the distant horizon, a long, black line appeared, approaching Paris at an alarming speed.
Under the torchlight, one could vaguely see the gleaming sabers in the hands of the cavalrymen and the imperial eagle banners fluttering high.
"They're cavalry, the Empire's cavalry division!"
Without machine guns or dedicated defensive positions, infantry facing a cavalry charge would only meet their demise.
When Troch's face turned deathly pale as he realized that the cavalry division had remained motionless for a long time and that this variable factor, which everyone had tried to ignore, had actually appeared on the battlefield, Troch's face immediately turned from ashen to death.
Everyone knew, and he knew it too, that Eugène had stationed two cavalry divisions outside Paris, totaling more than 12,000 men.
Troch knew of this force's existence, but it was impossible for the Republican Army to spare 2 to 3 men at this time to specifically guard against this mobile force outside the city.
In the president's own plan, he should have quickly dealt with the Bonaparte family, and then used the prisoners Eugène and Eugénie to persuade these two important military forces to surrender.
However, due to the unfavorable situation in the battle, and the fact that these two cavalry divisions remained completely still for six or seven hours after their uprising, Troch subconsciously overlooked the existence of this important military force.
Of course, Troch left a considerable number of troops at some important crossroads, but their military skills, numbers, and equipment were... well, let's just say they were not very good.
After all, with the unfavorable situation at the Tuileries Palace, the Republican Army had further increased its military force there to 3 men.
In the entire city of Paris, the Republican army, including those who surrendered, numbered at most a little over 50,000 in half a day. It takes time for the numbers to snowball; the Republic couldn't conjure up 100,000 people out of thin air.
Now, as the cavalry division was about to reach him, Troch, unable to ignore it any longer, also cried out in panic.
"Quickly, send men to stop them! Send all available personnel to Saint-Denis Gate and Saint-Martin Gate. We absolutely cannot let the cavalry division into the city. Hurry, get moving!"
Porte Saint-Denis is an extremely important city gate in northern Paris and a vital thoroughfare leading to the city center.
At this moment, a fierce battle is taking place beneath this ancient city gate with a history of over three hundred years.
Having received orders from Troch, the Republican commander in charge of defending Saint-Denis Gate, Duran, upon seeing one of the approaching cavalry units, displayed remarkable professionalism by not fleeing but taking action instead.
He deployed all 1500 of his National Guard troops near the city gate, using overturned wagons, large paving stones, and sandbags to create obstacles to block the cavalry charge.
Behind the obstacles, Duran deployed a number of self-defense soldiers. In addition, Duran, who had military academy experience, had previously ordered his soldiers to dig three deep trenches in the street in front of the city gate and bury several boxes of gunpowder as improvised explosive devices.