Descending On France 1780
Chapter 47 - 47 043 Christmas 1780

47: 043 Christmas 1780 47: 043 Christmas 1780 Briena’s days continued uneventfully.

Anning always felt that the military academy’s curriculum was a bit too slow; they had spent nearly three months just practicing the alignment of the infantry formations.

By the time the first snow of 1780 fell in Briena, the military academy’s teachers had just begun to instruct the cadets on how to change formations and organize anti-cavalry squares.

On the first day of formation training, the school brought in cavalry members to enhance the cadets’ real-life experience and to let them feel what it was like to face a cavalry charge as infantry.

This was Anning’s first time seeing Christina in an academic setting at school.

Dressed in shiny breastplate armor, her wavy long hair tied into a ponytail, emerged from the reserved slit on her helmet, dancing with the wind.

She held a spear tucked under her arm, charging into the wind, reminiscent of the “Maid of Orleans” from centuries ago.

Behind Christina were seven or eight girls, including the busty girl whose foot Anning had accidentally stepped on before.

Facing this group of cavalry, some of the cadets had already started whistling.

The school’s instructor shouted angrily, “Stop whistling!

Maintain your formation!

Experience the terror of facing such overwhelming impact on the battlefield!”

“Instructor!

If you want us to feel terror, you shouldn’t let the girls charge!” one of the cadets shouted loudly, “Now all we want to do is open our arms and let them rush into our embrace!”

The sons of nobles immediately burst into laughter.

Anning heard Napoleon muttering beside him, “These fools don’t know that even if it’s ladies riding horses, they can still cause serious injuries.”

Anning agreed, “Exactly, and before getting hit, you’d first get pierced through by a spear.”

Meanwhile, the girls began circling the cadets’ square formation, and the instructor explained, “Even the most well-trained warhorses fear facing a neat forest of bayonets, so forming a square can effectively resist cavalry.

“Always remember, the frontline soldiers should kneel and support their rifle butts on the ground to withstand the huge impact of the cavalry charge.

“The inner circle of soldiers is responsible for firing at the cavalry.

Although it’s hard to hit them because cavalry is moving fast, the target area of their side profile is much larger compared to the front, so continuous firing should yield some results.

“History has proven that even heavy cavalry like armored horsemen don’t have much of an advantage against formations.”

At this moment, a noble loudly asked, “Teacher, you said that line formations are very vulnerable to cavalry charges, so why don’t we primarily use square formations for combat?”

The instructor furrowed his brows at the questioner, “Good question you idiot, can anyone tell this fool why?”

At that moment, Napoleon raised his hand, “Me!”

“Napoleon!” the instructor slightly frowned but still called out Napoleon’s name, deliberately mocking his origins by mimicking the Italian pronunciation.

Yes, the school’s instructors were old nobles from Paris and looked down on Napoleon from Corsica.

Napoleon didn’t care about the instructor’s tone and directly answered, “Square formations have far weaker frontal firepower than normal line formations.

The same battalion, if arranged in a square, would have its frontal firepower reduced to a quarter, and can’t defeat another battalion arranged in a line.”

Instructor: “Very good!

You got one thing right!

Unfortunately, only one thing!

Can anyone tell Napoleon what he missed?”

No one raised their hand.

Clearly, the nobles had no clue.

Anning patted Napoleon on the shoulder and then raised his hand, “I will.”

The instructor snorted, “Okay, the leatherworker’s son!”

Anning: “It’s the artillery.

I’ve experienced artillery fire on the battlefield and seen how it kills.

A cannonball rolls along the ground, and after rolling through a line formation, it would knock down at most two rows of six people.

“But when a cannonball rolls through a square formation, the casualties are absolutely more than six.”

Instructor: “Very good, you are correct, as expected of someone who has been on the battlefield.

You even know that a cannonball rolls on the ground.

That’s exactly the point.

Square formations are very vulnerable to cannonballs, so on the battlefield, we often use cavalry to force the enemy into a square, then bombard them with artillery!

“You guys need to reflect on this, even a commoner and a Corsican know this, yet you all don’t!”

Anning heard Napoleon mutter softly, “Fools are fools, and it has nothing to do with their origin.”

“Exactly.” Anning patted Napoleon’s shoulder again.

The main content of the morning formation training over the next month became changing from line formation to square formation.

The instructors mechanically had the officer cadets practice this, repeating over and over again.

So time passed until Christmas of 1780.

That morning, Anning went to find Napoleon and dragged him along to celebrate Christmas.

Anning had it all figured out; Napoleon, being from Corsica, must feel quite lonely spending Christmas alone – a perfect opportunity to improve their rapport!

According to the system’s prompt, Napoleon now trusted him, and he was ready to keep pushing to see what the next level of trust could be.

When Anning arrived at Napoleon’s place, he saw him sweeping snow off the doorstep.

“Napoleon!

Why are you sweeping snow?” Anning asked, puzzled, “Is it your landlord…”

“It was my own initiative to sweep the snow, because I find that doing mindless tasks like this helps me think.”

Anning: “Let me help you, and after we finish, we can go celebrate Christmas at Christina’s estate.”

Napoleon: “Are you sure that lady would welcome a Corsican bumpkin like me?”

“She’s welcomed me, a son of a leatherworker; she probably wouldn’t mind an extra Corsican bumpkin,” Anning joked.

Napoleon: “It’s not the same; you are her lifesaver, for all you know, she might secretly like you.

I’m just an outsider.”

Seeing that this might lead to Napoleon not coming along, Anning quickly changed the subject: “What were you thinking about just now while sweeping the snow?”

“Ah?

I was wondering, since skirmishers have an advantage over line infantry in firefights, why not adopt skirmishers as the basic formation for infantry?”

Anning shook his head: “You probably see it in school, where students are organized into skirmisher formations orderly, so you have been misled.

“However, it’s not like that.

Everyone in school is an officer cadet, mostly nobles, so they can maintain order and morale when forming open formations.

“In real combat, line infantry can only keep their morale under the supervision of non-commissioned officers.

Once they break formation into skirmishers, they will directly rout.

“The conscripted line infantry certainly don’t have the high combat desire and initiative that the non-commissioned officers have.

“Skirmisher units in various countries are either mercenaries who fight for money, earning rewards through acts of valor, or criminals and bandits who naturally like looting and killing.

“To maintain the morale and fighting desire of these individuals, nations also assign female camp followers to skirmisher units, bringing strong alcohol and their alluring presence to motivate the skirmishers.”

Napoleon was astonished: “Female camp followers?”

“Yes, they’re responsible for providing skirmisher units with liquor and intimacy,” Anning said, as if he had actually seen it.

In reality, he had never seen them on the frontlines, but he had read Hugo’s “Year 93”, which describes at the start how a group of the Republic’s skirmishers aided by their accompanying female camp followers, advancing to the forefront, found a rebel woman with a child.

Napoleon shook his head, “It’s crazy, I thought women entered the battlefield in ways similar to Miss Christina.”

Anning: “There’s still a lot you don’t know, so come with me, and I will teach you bit by bit.”

Napoleon pursed his lips: “Alright, but I still don’t want to go to Miss Christina’s estate; she definitely won’t welcome me.”

Anning: “How can you be so sure?

Maybe one of Miss Christina’s noble lady friends has taken a liking to you.”

Napoleon shook his head: “Even if a lady liked me, I wouldn’t be happy about it.

I have decided to dedicate my life to the liberation of Corsica.”

——Don’t speak too soon, Napoleon, you’ll change your tune when you meet Josephine Boarne.

Anning: “Come on, do it for your one and only friend.”

He subtly placed himself in the position of “the only friend.”

Napoleon sighed: “Alright.

Let’s consider it as going to taste that Parisian chef’s cooking at Miss Christina’s estate.”

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