In Antwerp, the British continued to pursue in the direction of Mana's escape after resting for two days, but when the British ** team arrived at Beveren, the French troops under Hagen, who had already arrived in Beveren, surprised the British.
Beveren is a small town west of Antwerp, with a population of less than 8,000 people, and Hagen's troops had occupied Beveren before the arrival of the British, and not only that, but on the outskirts of Beveren, Hagen's 10,000 soldiers had built a rudimentary defensive line, although very rudimentary, but it was enough for the British.
The Battle of Recht made it clear to the British that it was not advisable to advance aggressively, and that the French army was not as ready to collapse as they had initially thought.
It was with this in mind that Ralph made some adjustments to the forward army, and the vanguard of the entire British ** team was two infantry divisions and a cavalry division plus a heavy artillery regiment, with a total strength of 18,000 men.
Of course, after these 18,000 people was the main force of the Chinese army of the British ** team, and the Chinese army of up to 40,000 people rolled towards Beveren under the personal leadership of Ralph.
However, for Hagen, although the British had a great advantage in strength, the performance of the British in the first battle of Recht had reached Hagen's ears through the mouths of the heralds under Mana, and in Hagen's opinion, the British were simply unsightly, so he did not look down on the British.
Of course, Hagen made a subjective mistake by not realizing that Mana's victory was based on the light and rashness of the British, who were of course inferior in combat effectiveness to the French soldiers.
But Britain is an old empire after all, and the British people's weapons and equipment and army configuration are absolutely first-class in Europe.
Hagen had 10,000 soldiers, but Hagen had only 50 guns in his hands.
And in order to take into account the retreat after the volley, these guns were all light guns.
On the other hand, the British army, because of the lessons they had received before, so under Ralph's strict orders, the British forward army increased its vigilance, although the strength was 18,000 men, but these troops were equipped with a full 130 guns.
Among them was a regiment of heavy artillery with more than sixty twelve-pound heavy guns.
Leading the LinkedIn team forward is Ralph's General Brooke, who has an outstanding resume among British generals, not only participating in the British Empire's colony of India, but also participating in the suppression of rebels in North America and the invasion of the natives of the West Indies.
It can be said that Brooke's footsteps spread throughout the territory of the British Empire.
It's just that this General Brooke is not from a famous family.
Therefore, in the British world, although Brooke's combat exploits are enough to bring him one step closer, he has always been hovering in the middle level, if it weren't for Ralph's fancy for Brooke's rich combat experience this time.
I'm afraid that Brooke may not be able to be promoted to general in his life.
The fifty-six-year-old Brooke cherishes this expedition to the European continent.
He knew that compared with the generals of his generation or even the younger generations, he was already a lot behind, after all, the fifty-six-year-old major general was really nothing special.
Therefore, Brooke also secretly determined that whether it was for his military career or his ambitions, he would perform well in this war.
Decades of war career have made Brooke very attentive to every detail of the war, Brooke knows very well that on the battlefield the details can determine success or failure, sometimes a single mistake can ruin the whole battle, so after Ralph appointed Brooke as the commander of the striker.
Brooke studied the map between Antwerp and Kotlet in great detail, and at the same time demanded from Ralph a large number of horses and the right to kill his officers.
With a war horse.
Brooke can improve the mobility of his army, although he already has a cavalry division, but Brooke is particularly insufficient, and the power of life and death of the officers under his command can make the officers under his command feel fearful and can complete the military order to the greatest extent.
After receiving Ralph's consent, Brooke led his 18,000 men to march.
Because of the defeat of the British army in the battle of Recht, after the war, Ralph ordered the army to stop near Recht, and during the period of stationing in Recht, Ralph also made further arrangements for Antwerp.
Antwerp is a port city, and in a way, Antwerp is very important to the British.
During the period when Antwerp was not conquered, the British Expeditionary Force was mainly transported by navy and then landed in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and the distance from Rotterdam to the British mainland was naturally farther than Antwerp.
Now the British team has conquered Antwerp, which means that the British can directly reach Antwerp by sea in the future, and Antwerp can be said to be only one step away from France.
Not only that, Antwerp can be said to be a transit point, from Antwerp, both to France and to Brussels has good road traffic.
At the same time, the capture of Antwerp meant that the Austrian Netherlands had no forces capable of threatening the British army except for the French army, after Noviliko had mobilized most of the Austrian troops in the Austrian Netherlands to Antwerp, and now Brussels is only defended by less than 2,000 Austrian troops.
And the two thousand Austrian troops, naturally, were not taken into account by Ralph.
In Ralph's view, the only force that can resist the British team is the French team under Napoleon, and the French army under Napoleon is also the biggest obstacle that the British team needs to face.
Britain, including the whole of Europe, knew that the French ** team led by Napoleon could be said to be the largest and most elite army in France at present.
Although France still had more than 100,000 troops after the removal of Napoleon's troops, all of them were held back by the revolutionary forces that were rising and falling all over France, and the harsh financial situation of France did not allow Louis XVI to call up troops on a large scale again.
Therefore, it can be said that Napoleon's army is the hope of the whole of France, and once Napoleon fails, then the Bourbon dynasty in France has only two results, one result is to disregard the revolutionary forces everywhere and pour out the strength of the whole country to start a decisive battle with the British, and the other is to be defeated by the British, but no matter which choice is for the Bourbons, the end will be destroyed, of course, if Louis XIV surrenders, it will naturally be another result.
In this way, after learning of the arrival of the French ** team, Ralph was so eager to defeat these French ** teams, because he knew that as long as he defeated Napoleon's army, then the mission of the British expeditionary force could be said to be completed by one-third.
What Ralph didn't know, of course, was that at the behest of the French, 30,000 Spanish troops were already in southern France.
Louis XVI had already requested reinforcements from Spain, and Spain had agreed that the Spanish troops had been assembled in the southern part of the border between France and Spain.
Spain had less to worry about the British after recovering Gibraltar, and having Gibraltar in hand meant that the coastal cities on the eastern coast of Spain, that is, on the Mediterranean side, were free from the threat of the British navy, and most of the eastern part of Spain was Portuguese territory.
The British repeatedly asked Portugal to join the war against Spain, but the Portuguese did not agree to the British request because they had not yet recovered their strength, and the strength of the Portuguese army was really weak compared to Spain and Britain.
At the moment, Spain only needed to leave some troops to defend cities that might be threatened by the British navy, and to gather some troops on the Portuguese border to defend them.
The Spanish had only 15,000 troops left after conquering Gibraltar, while on the Portuguese border, the Spaniards amassed 60,000 troops, which of course the Spaniards insisted were to prevent the British from landing in Portugal and threatening the Spanish mainland.
And in the capital Madrid area, Spain still garrisoned 30,000 troops.
Straight to the point In short, Ralph did not care about the 2,000 Austrian troops in Brussels, but directly issued a military order to the British Expeditionary Force under his command to fight a decisive battle against Napoleon's French army.
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When Brooke arrived at Beveren with the LinkedIn ** team, Hagen's 10,000 French troops were ready, and when Brooke saw the French ** team that was already waiting through the binoculars, Brooke had a decision in his heart.
"Order the artillery to immediately set up the artillery to the front line, while all the men remain on alert, let the Eleventh Cavalry Division spread out to remain on alert, the Fifth and Eighth Infantry Divisions immediately form battle formations, and the various divisions will send scouts twenty miles to reconnoitre!"
Brooke's order was given, and the British formation immediately changed, and the heavy artillery regiments that had previously been in the rear of the army accelerated their pace and rushed towards the front of the army.
Brooke spotted the French army waiting for them, and the French naturally saw the British flag in the courtyard.
Hagen, who was standing in front of the position, saw that the British had changed formation, and he immediately ordered: "Let the departments be vigilant and wait for my orders, our task is to stay in Beveren for a day, this will not be difficult for us at all, but there must be no chaos!"
After saying that, Hagen continued to look in the direction of the British ** team with a telescope.