Chapter 2042: Seeking Aid from Italy

The main force led by Nashadier launched an attack in an instant.

Upon seeing the scale of the Cavalry in the main force led by Nashadier, the French commander felt incredibly fortunate for the decision he had made,

not choosing to swallow up that small detachment at the very first moment.

Fortunately, the decision made back then was to hold the position; otherwise, if attacked by a Cavalry unit of this scale, they would definitely have been wiped out by the opponent.

The total strength of the Cavalry, Infantry, and other troop types in the force Dawn gave him only added up to twenty thousand men!

If they were to rely solely on these forces to engage in a head-on collision with a unit that was entirely Cavalry,

the opponent's force would hold a great advantage.

The French force would simply be unable to contend with them.

But now, the most important problem facing the French commander was that their defensive fortifications had not been completed.

This battle of Nashadier's could be said to have been fought with particular suddenness.

They had no way to use these unfinished defensive fortifications and could only hurriedly respond to the assault from Nashadier's force.

Under such circumstances, the French force held absolutely no advantage in a head-on confrontation against Nashadier's force equipped with Muskets; one could even say they were at a complete disadvantage.

Nashadier's Cavalry unit used Muskets, which had a wide attack range and strong mobility.

They even carried Cannons, because moving Cannons by dragging them with Cavalry could become very fast.

And this artillery unit was the Henry unit that had attacked them.

At this moment, the battle on the field was already locked in a stalemate.

In order to deal with this battlefield situation, the French commander had no choice but to let his troops engage in a tug-of-war with the Insurgent Army.

They used the Infantry to utilize the half-built trenches that were barely usable to block and entangle the Cavalry unit that could pose a threat to them.

This caused the entire battlefield to fall into a state of deadlock.

But what they had not expected at all was that the Henry unit, which they had chosen not to pursue earlier, was actually attacking while carrying Cannons.

Under the mobility of the Cavalry, these Cannons, which were not large in number, were like a mobile artillery group.

They could linger outside the battlefield and make adjustments rapidly.

Seeing the fighting style developed by Henry's unit, the French commander was completely bewildered!

"Where on earth did those damned Egyptian people think of this way of attacking!"

The mobile artillery strikes could almost hit the entire battlefield; such an attack directly left the French Soldier reeling and dizzy.

Although the attack frequency was not particularly high, each time it brought huge casualties to this scorching battlefield.

Conversely, the Cannons carried by the French force could only be fixed in one position and had no way to launch attacks like the Insurgent Army's Cannons.

Under such circumstances, the role their Cannons could play was truly too small.

Nashadier watched the situation on the battlefield, which was developing in the direction he had anticipated.

He gave a faint smile, not expecting that the plan to attack the French Colonial Area would end the battle so quickly.

"The Method Jiang Xuan mentioned is really quite good."

Yes, this way of attacking was what Jiang Xuan had told him about back then.

Seeing that the French Soldier on the battlefield had already been beaten to the point of near-collapse, with morale falling sharply,

he prepared to launch an attack directly to crush the French force.

And then march into the industrial zone.

"It seems Jiang Xuan's plan is going to be realized in my hands." Nashadier gave a faint smile.

Just as he wanted to launch the final charge to crush the French force in one stroke, a change suddenly occurred on the battlefield.

A reinforcement force of the French Army appeared from out of nowhere.

Seeing the French Army that had come to support, Nashadier made a decision on the spot and sighed, "It seems it's not that simple. Retreat."

"Retreat!"

The Insurgent Army sounded the gongs to withdraw; although the situation was excellent for them against the French force, under Nashadier's order,

they still chose to obey this command.

Nashadier's Insurgent Army retreated while fighting, withdrawing in a very orderly fashion.

Even though reinforcements had arrived, the French commander had absolutely no intention of pursuing.

The Insurgent Army had not suffered much damage in this battle at all, whereas their own troops had suffered far, far too much.

Under such circumstances, a pursuit would very likely be worn down by the Insurgent Army's Cavalry unit.

That was why the French commander did not choose to continue the attack.

But he looked at the French Army that had come to support in the distance, feeling somewhat puzzled; shouldn't they be fighting Jiang Xuan right now?

Why were they able to rush over here?

The general leading them told him.

"The Marshal received notification that the Longyan are very likely to launch a war against us in Europe; the support that was originally promised is now all gone."

"We must hold the industrial zone; we absolutely cannot let the Longyan or the Egyptian occupy this place!"

"There is no danger for you to defend here, so we were sent here as well."

Hearing this, the commander's heart skipped a beat.

If this was the case, the military strength of their French Colonial Area had already reached a precarious state.

More importantly, through today's battle, he had already sensed that the Insurgent Army, which had been pieced together back then, was now developing in the direction of a regular army.

This was a very terrifying thing.

It showed that Nashadier had used a very short time to train a ragtag group into a unit capable of orderly combat and possessing great fighting power.

Fighting against such an opponent, they were still in a situation of lacking troops.

There was no way to get reinforcements of new soldiers.

They will continue to remain at a disadvantage.

The French commander looked toward the direction where the Nashadier troops had retreated; it was not a scene of chaos, but rather one of great order.

The French commander realized deeply just what kind of opponent he was fighting against.

Now the pressure had shifted to his side...

And on the other side.

Dawn felt the pressure shift to his side as well; ever since he received word that the French mainland could no longer provide him with any support, he had fallen into a state of irritability and unease.

Without support, he could see almost no hope of victory in this war against the Egyptians and the Longyan.

He let out a deep breath and looked at the map.

At this point, he still had one Method, but had it not been for this critical moment...

Dawn would not have wanted to use this measure at all.

"Send someone to Somalia to find the general of the Italian troops!"

Although Italy had screwed the French over in Hanover, when it came down to it, Italy was still an ally of the French Empire.

Joining forces with Italy to resist the Longyan Unit was the most normal thing in the world for the French Empire.

However, the only thing that made Dawn hesitate was the Italian army; in his eyes, the combat effectiveness of the Italian army had always been a mystery.

It was hard to imagine that a European power could actually be defeated by natives when attacking an overseas colony.

This was simply a disgrace to Europe.

What was even harder to imagine was that their troops could actually defeat their opponents, yet after winning, they would demand that the other side accept their own troops' surrender...