Chapter 222 The World's Earliest Field Hospital

Chapter 223 The World's First Field Hospital

In front of the thin and narrow infantry line, Lefebvre looked at the Albanian mercenaries in khaki short robes slowly swarming like ants all over the mountains in the distance, and nervously wiped the sweat from his palms on the hem of his clothes.

The second company commander beside him whispered: "Lieutenant, there are about three or four thousand people..."

"I saw it." Lefebvre responded with a gloomy face. At this moment, he began to regret that he did get behind the enemy in advance, but there were only 220 people on his side.

The distance between the infantry behind him was 1.5 meters, and usually this number should be 0.5 to 0.7 meters. There were only two rows in front and behind. If the enemy launched a strong attack, it would be easy to break the line.

"Hold on!" He glanced behind him and shouted to encourage morale, "Hold your guns tightly. The enemy is vulnerable!" In fact, his forehead was covered with cold sweat.

Soon, the khaki "ant colony" came close to the infantry line.

As Lefebvre shouted "shoot", the guns of the soldiers in the first row fired, and flames and thick smoke gushed out at the same time.

Because the distance was a bit far, only seven or eight Albanian mercenaries were shot down by the bullets. However, the Albanians seemed to be stung by a scorpion and instantly separated to both sides, as if the slender French line in front of them was a stone wall.

"Shoot!"

When the French soldiers in the second row opened fire, the thousands of mercenaries who had originally rushed in panic turned around and ran away.

Their morale had been completely broken. Like a frightened bird, they had a stress reaction when they heard the gunshots, and they didn't even look up to see how many enemy troops there were.

Lefebvre's eyes flashed with surprise, and his voice became louder: "Reload!"

"..."

"Shoot!"

As the soldiers of the Guards Corps continued to fire, the Albanian fleeing soldiers became more and more chaotic, and even a large number of trampling occurred. Thousands of people were blocked by these 200 soldiers for nearly 20 minutes, during which only some mercenaries escaped from both sides of the infantry line - Lefebvre's manpower was too few, and the width of the line could only block a quarter of this flat road.

Finally, the first team of police cadets appeared behind the Albanian army. The latter quickly changed from fleeing everywhere to kneeling down and begging for mercy by dropping their weapons.

Four hours later.

Joseph and Berthier and other officers walked through the center of the battlefield just now, watching the soldiers carefully carry the wounded away, or shouting at groups of Albanian mercenary captives passing by.

The battle process was smoother than Joseph expected - both the Guards Corps and the police cadets showed high morale and excellent combat level. Of course, a large part of the reason was that the enemy's team was out of touch. Otherwise, Berthier could only wait for the Moulin Corps to arrive and have a head-on battle with more than 20,000 Algiers troops.

Soldiers around saw them from time to time, and they stood at attention and saluted. Joseph also nodded to the soldiers frequently.

Berthier took a note from the staff, glanced at it quickly, turned to Joseph and smiled: "Your Highness, the news just came back that we have captured more than 3,000 enemy troops on the west side. Among them, there seem to be several senior officers."

"Oh? You actually caught up?"

Joseph was a little surprised. After the enemy army collapsed, some fled to the north, and the others retreated to the west. Berthier ordered the cavalry to pursue northward at that time, and he thought that the enemy on the west side might escape.

Berthier said: "Two skirmishers quickly inserted into the west side of the enemy and cut off their retreat."

The staff officer on the side hurriedly gave a general introduction to the blocking battle on the west side.

"François Lefebvre?" Joseph felt that the name was a little familiar. He suddenly slapped his forehead. Isn't this the Duke of Danzig?

One of the 26 marshals of Emperor Napoleon, he participated in the Battle of Fleurus, the Battle of Jena and other major battles, and followed Emperor Napoleon to Russia, with outstanding military exploits.

Joseph immediately remembered that Lefebvre was a civilian and had served in the French Guard. It seems that Berthier recruited him to his own army when he took over the French Guard last time.

No wonder he was so fierce and blocked more than 3,000 Albanian mercenaries with two companies. Did he accidentally pick up a treasure?

He looked at Berthier: "Your Excellency Lieutenant Colonel, how do you plan to reward this Lieutenant Lefebvre?"

The latter thought: "He is brave in battle and has good command ability. He performed very well in the previous exercises.

"Your Highness, he can get the Silver Iris Medal this time and be promoted to captain. "

According to the military merit system set up by Joseph, it is divided into the following from high to low: Gold Fleur-de-Iris Medal, Silver Fleur-de-Iris Medal, and Bronze Fleur-de-Iris Medal. These require specific military merits to obtain. For example, the Gold Fleur-de-Iris must play a huge role in determining the situation in a certain battle. The Silver Fleur-de-Iris must have an important impact on the outcome of the battle. The Bronze Fleur-de-Iris must also have a significant contribution to the local part of the battle.

This system is far ahead of this era!

In the current European army, even if there are medals, they will only be awarded to noble lords. In the Prince's Guards, even if you are a beggar, even if you are a chores soldier, as long as you contribute to the war, you can get corresponding military merits.

At the same time, each level of military merit has specific rewards and treatment. After the merit is made, it will be immediately redeemed, money will be given, upgrades will be given, and even family members can benefit.

Under such a merit system, which soldier can not fight actively? How can morale not be high?

Joseph paused for a moment and said, "I think Lefebvre can be promoted to major. The Guards are short of talent now, and we need to give more opportunities to officers with potential."

What he said was also true. Because the Guards originally controlled the source of soldiers to civilians and small nobles, resulting in a shortage of middle and senior officers. In France at this time, only nobles with rich family backgrounds could afford to go to military academies to study the majors that could become senior officers. Without money and background, even if you enter a military academy, you can only study those unpopular subjects such as surveying and engineering, and promotion will be extremely slow.

So currently in the Guards, many lieutenants have to serve as company commanders because there is a serious shortage of captains.

The most important thing is that Joseph is very sure that Lefebvre is absolutely qualified for the position of major. That is a marshal personally identified by the Emperor through a series of wars!

Berthier immediately smiled and nodded: "As you say, Your Highness."

In the Guards, the orders of the Crown Prince have absolute authority and cannot be questioned. Of course, Joseph would never blindly command without knowing his own strength, after all, this is the foundation of his life.

The staff officer on the side laughed and said, "Captain Davout's glory will be overshadowed now."

Berthier also smiled: "He is still young, and someone who can beat him may inspire him to grow faster."

The future Marshal Davout has just turned 18 years old. Less than half a year after graduating from the military academy, he performed well in the exercise and was promoted to lieutenant and became the commander of the infantry company. In today's battle, he bravely led his company to withstand the dense shooting of the enemy, and took the lead in breaking up the enemy's formation with hand-to-hand combat, and was promoted to captain.

Joseph sighed in his heart that these marshals under the emperor were indeed not vegetarians. If they were given a little chance, they would immediately stand out.

In the afternoon, the Guards Corps had roughly cleaned up the battlefield, and Joseph personally presided over the burial ceremony of the fallen soldiers. Of course, the specific religious process was still operated by the military priest.

In this battle, the Guards and police academy students lost 89 people and 70 people were seriously injured.

Although this number of casualties is not large, it can be reduced for a one-sided battle like today.

Of course, this is only their first time to participate in actual combat. Joseph believes that as their combat experience continues to grow, they will do better and better in the future.

Watching the bodies of their comrades being carefully buried, and then His Royal Highness the Crown Prince saluting and bidding farewell to them one by one, new changes have appeared in the hearts of the Guards.

In the past, they were more grateful and dependent on the Crown Prince, but after His Royal Highness went to the battlefield with them and fought side by side, it has now become love and respect.

At 5 pm the next day, the Guards, which were resting on the spot, finally waited for the late Mulan Corps.

It was half a day later than the scheduled time.

In the officer's tent, Andre saluted Joseph with a look of self-blame: "Your Highness, I'm really sorry, I'm late."

Joseph motioned him to sit down on the chair and asked: "Did something happen?"

Andre nodded awkwardly: "Your Highness, after leaving Tunisia, our wine supplies were not delivered. The next day, there was a large-scale outbreak of dysentery."

He glanced outside the military tent: "In fact, less than 2,600 people from the Mulan Corps arrived. The rest of the people were left halfway because of serious illness."

The Mulan Corps that came to Tunisia had 3,000 people, which means that in four or five days, 13% of the troops were reduced because of dysentery!

Joseph frowned slightly. He knew that most of the population in Tunisia believed in Islam and did not drink alcohol, so wine was difficult to get. This also confirmed his doubts about the Tunisians' ability to provide logistical supplies.

Wine is an important military supply of this era. One of the main reasons is that this thing kills most of the harmful bacteria during the fermentation process, and it is safest for the army to use this thing to replenish water.

After leaving Tunisia, the Moulan Legion had no wine and could only find water to drink in the wild. This should be the reason for their massive outbreak of dysentery.

Joseph comforted Andre and asked him to settle the troops first, as they might have to fight tomorrow - according to the confession of the captured Albanian mercenaries, the main force of the Algiers Guards was more than ten kilometers behind them, which was only a day's journey.

After Andre left, Joseph suddenly thought of a question and looked at Berthier and said, "Is the wine supply of the Guard Corps not interrupted?"

"No, Your Highness, we are the same as the Moulin Corps. We have no wine after leaving Tunisia City."

"Oh? Then why didn't the Guard Corps have an outbreak of dysentery?"

The staff officer next to him hurriedly replied admiringly: "Your Highness, this is all thanks to Dr. Perna. Before, the troops had a serious dysentery problem. Later, he strictly required the soldiers to drink hot water, and the situation improved. He even saved this battle."

Joseph blinked: "Perna?"

Berthier whispered: "It's the male name of Dr. Perna."

"Is it her?"

A moment later, Perna, wearing a white military uniform and with her long hair tied in a tricorn hat, came to the officer's tent and saluted Joseph and others with a standard male action.

Joseph lifted his hat and asked her curiously: "How did you think of letting the Guard Corps drink hot water?"

Perna said seriously: "Your Highness, this is what you taught me."

"Me?"

"You once told my father that illness is caused by bacteria entering the human body. Later in Bordeaux, you told Mr. Vergniaud that bacteria will die in hot water for half an hour."

The young female doctor took a breath and continued: "Before, some soldiers in the legion suffered from dysentery. I remembered this when I was treating them, so I asked them to boil water for half an hour before drinking it. Many people gradually recovered their health, and those disobedient soldiers even had diarrhea for more than a month.

"So I determined that your method was effective, and asked the soldiers to drink hot water. "

After hearing this, Joseph greatly appreciated the female doctor's ability to draw inferences from one example, but at the same time he didn't know whether to laugh or cry - you just need to boil the water, there is no need to keep boiling it for half an hour.

But it must be admitted that she made a great contribution this time. If 13% of the soldiers in the Guards Corps also had dysentery, this battle with the Albanian mercenaries would be much more difficult.

At the same time, Joseph also blamed himself. He should have popularized these common sense things in the army in advance. Alas, people are really easy to be blind to the light.

He nodded and praised Perna: "You did a great job, I think you should even be awarded a medal."

Perna waved her hands hurriedly: "I just did what a doctor should do, Your Highness, you don't have to reward me like this. In fact, I am very happy that I can treat the soldiers in the legion during this period. "

Joseph then remembered that Perna would be scolded by patients when she treated patients. Some patients even believed that female doctors would bring bad luck to them.

The soldiers of the Guards Corps saw that she was dressed as a man, but there were few military doctors, and even fewer who could cure their illnesses, so they pretended not to know. And just this alone made her very happy.

Joseph suddenly thought of something: "Dr. Perna, I would like to ask you to help build a field hospital for the Guards Corps."

You know, most soldiers in this era did not die on the battlefield, but died from poor medical conditions after being wounded.

Although antibiotics have not yet been developed, as long as there is a clean and tidy medical environment and medical equipment is disinfected diligently, the probability of infection for wounded soldiers can be reduced by at least half.

Perna, who has superb medical skills, is careful and good at learning, is the best candidate to do this.

At the same time, she can always devote herself to her beloved medical career without having to care too much about her gender.

"Field hospital?" Perna had never heard of this new term.

"Yes! "Joseph nodded, "There is also the profession of nursing, you can also do it together."