Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Chapter 1210: Chapter 1115: Mala Farm Tactics

At this moment, the Red Team had just retracted their formation, entering the most chaotic phase, and suddenly faced a counterattack from the opponent, unable to resist and had to withdraw from the village.

Afterwards, the Blue Team’s artillery quickly changed positions and, with the help of hot air balloons, conducted target calibration to ensure they could accurately hit the small village.

Soon, relying on their superior manpower, the Red Team regained their momentum and launched another attack on the village.

The Blue Team still couldn’t hold their ground and abandoned the village.

The Red Team occupied the village, and then were severely bombarded…

After three repeated tugs-of-war, the gunfire gradually ceased, and the exercise seemed to be over.

A host of military officers immediately started discussing, obviously shocked by the remarkable effectiveness of this “Death Farm” strategy.

Hmm, this was a strategy proposed by Joseph a year ago, actually copying the future “Mala Farm” strategy, but to prevent misunderstanding by the Official Investigation Bureau, it was renamed to “Death Farm”.

The implementation is quite simple; it involves deliberately abandoning one’s own position, luring the enemy to occupy it. Then, using pre-calibrated cannon clusters to inflict large-scale damage on the attacking enemy.

Although this era doesn’t have the advanced artillery markers of the future, and lacks fast-moving motorized infantry, one can slowly complete calibration amid the gaps of enemy attack and retreat using “manual mode”.

Before long, the Dean of Academic Affairs of the Military Academy personally brought commanders from both sides of the exercise to report the results to Joseph: “Your Highness, the Red Team suffered over a third of their forces and had no effective means to counter the Blue Team, thus deemed a failure. The Blue Team suffered less than a hundred casualties and won this exercise.”

Joseph smiled and nodded: “It seems all corps are already very proficient in the coordination with hot air balloons and the use of the ’Death Farm’ strategy.”

Mula, sitting in the back and not very familiar with the artillery, frowned and whispered to Marmon next to him: “This strategy is extremely effective, but training it shouldn’t be complicated. In the future on the battlefield, our enemies will quickly learn it. We’ll need to prepare some countermeasures in advance.”

Marmon, Chief Artillery Commander of the First French Army Group, waved a hand with a smile: “This strategy seems simple, but currently only we can implement it.”

“Oh? Why?”

Marmon pointed to the slowly descending hot air balloon: “Because no other country has high-altitude reconnaissance units.

“The focus of the ’Death Farm’ strategy is to start shelling immediately after our forces retreat from the position, inflicting maximum damage on the enemy.

“Once the enemy finishes their defensive preparations, not only is the damage effect greatly reduced, but it might truly hand the position to the enemy.

“Of course, firing too early can also result in friendly fire.

“Accurately timing the bombardment relies solely on observations and notifications from hot air balloons.

“Moreover, when the enemy retreats to reduce bombardment damage, we must immediately launch a counterattack to expand the victory, which also requires intelligence from the hot air balloons.”

Hearing this, Mula’s eyes lit up: “Hot air balloons are the most astonishing equipment I’ve ever seen! Hmm, the last thing that made me feel like this was riding a cannon wagon.”

An hour later, over two thousand more soldiers entered the training ground to begin scattered soldier cluster exercises.

Mula watched the scattered troops lined up in horizontal lines hundreds of meters long, firing in unison and advancing in an orderly manner through a telescope, and said to Marmon: “Recently, the Crown Prince frequently stays in the General Staff or inspects troops, could it be that a war is coming?”

“Hmm, I heard there’s going to be an expedition to Egypt.”

Sitting on the other side, Dawu leaned over and said: “It should be more than just Egypt. All four of the main army groups have started intensive training, and last month they even checked the logistical supplies, I think the enemy is likely the British.”

Marmon nodded: “I heard that there’s been a change in the front line over in Portugal…”

Mula immediately made a gesture of swinging a horse saber: “Really? I can’t wait!”

As they were whispering, an officer quickly walked up to the viewing platform, handed a “telegram” from the Sharp Signal Tower to Bertier, and whispered a few words.

The Chief of Staff frowned and immediately turned to Joseph: “Your Highness, we just received news that the Marquis Talavera has led 40,000 soldiers to launch a siege on Lisbon. The Portuguese Royal Family has likely already fled Lisbon.”

Joseph did not seem too surprised; last week, when Juno reported the sudden departure of the main Spanish forces from Coimbra, he suspected that Talavera might be going to launch a surprise attack on Lisbon.

“The British are preparing to withdraw from the Portuguese front,” he folded up the telegram and sighed, “The Spaniards just gave them a little help.

“However, for Madrid, this is indeed the best strategic choice. I didn’t expect the Marquis Talavera to have such brilliant strategy.”

This time, Juno passively helped Spain hold the front line against the Anglo-Portuguese Army, but couldn’t say Talavera did anything wrong.

And the Spanish Army took this opportunity to rapidly occupy large tracts of southern Portuguese territory.

But this forced the Portuguese Royal Family to flee to South America, and originally, due to the obligation to protect Portugal, the British, even wanting to reduce their forces on the Iberian Peninsula, couldn’t go too far.

But now that even the Portuguese Royal Family has fled, the British can rightfully withdraw their troops.

In the future, Spain’s effect of bleeding Britain will be greatly reduced.

However, Joseph was not aware that this was not Talavera’s idea, but a strategy proposed by Joaquin Blake, who at this time was still obscure and serving as an engineer battalion commander.

Yes, he is the historical governor of the three Spanish provinces who established the Spanish General Staff and defeated Xu Let and Vilatte during the resistance against Napoléon’s invasion.

He was also one of the key generals who drove Joseph Bonaparte off the Spanish throne.

Of course, at this point, he was far from being a match for the famous French generals, being pursued and beaten by Surt and others all the way, ultimately being captured by Xu Let.

After the scattered soldier cluster exercise concluded, Joseph made a speech to the military cadets and then canceled the plan to observe the next day’s exercise, returning to the Palace of Versailles overnight.

Early the next morning, Bertier, Moro, Lefevre, and other officers gathered in Joseph’s reception room to discuss subsequent strategic plans for the Iberian Peninsula.

“If Wellesley retreats behind the Torres Vedras line, only 10,000 troops are needed to fend off Talavera’s attack,” Bertier said, “unless Madrid can add more than 20,000 troops.”

Lefevre shook his head: “They will have to invest a lot of effort to stabilize the situation in Portugal, so increasing the troops is simply impossible.”

“If we want to consume the British as much as possible,” Moro looked towards the Crown Prince, “then we can only encourage Madrid to recapture Gibraltar. They certainly wouldn’t refuse.”