Chapter 303: The Grand Versailles Scene of the Guards Corps (Asking for Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 304: The Grand Versailles Scene of the Guards (asking for monthly tickets)

On the high ground not far from the Champagne Corps’ station, thousands of soldiers were looking down. The General Staff even prepared more than a dozen telescopes for them to use in turn.

Soon, they saw a thin white line of soldiers running out from the parade ground, so fast that they couldn’t believe it—if they were asked to run at this speed, they would be exhausted after running at most 1 kilometer.

But the soldiers of the Guards Corps maintained this high speed almost throughout the whole process.

A Champagne Corps soldier who got the telescope suddenly exclaimed: "They are still carrying things!"

Others immediately grabbed the telescope and immediately followed with surprise: "Yes, they all carried guns and blankets..."

An officer of the General Staff heard the soldiers' discussion and smiled and said loudly: "Each of them carried 18 pounds, well, now we have to use standard measurement, that is 9 kilograms of weight."

The people of the Champagne Corps were stunned. They didn't bring anything just now. After running 5 kilometers, to be precise, most of them walked, and they were all tired as if they were about to die. How could the soldiers of the Guards Corps finish the run in 22 minutes with such heavy things on their backs? !

Ten minutes later, the soldiers of the Champagne Corps who were watching the demonstration fell silent. They could clearly see from a high place that those people were running at the same speed and had already run halfway and were turning back.

Finally, someone whispered, "Are they all monsters?"

After a moment of silence, a lieutenant sighed and said, "Maybe we are just too bad."

Napoleon turned around the circular mountain road and felt that his legs were about to lose consciousness. The luggage on his back was like a mountain, making it very difficult for him to breathe.

He looked up at the soldiers around him who were running at the same speed, and immediately gritted his teeth and whispered to himself, "I won't lose to you. It's just running..."

He immediately sped up a few points and surpassed the soldiers in front of him. He thought to himself: Look, this is not difficult. Come on, overtake another one!

After running for an unknown amount of time, Napoleon finally saw the gate of the parade ground in the distance. Although his chest and abdomen were aching, he smiled.

He felt that he should be able to pass the test at this speed.

Sure enough, the moment he passed the gate, the officer next to him looked at his watch and said, "21 minutes and 19 seconds."

Napoleon pressed his abdomen and resisted the nausea after the intense exercise, but he was filled with strong joy in his heart - he finally passed another test.

This damn Guard Corps, he is one step closer to conquering it!

As the last few Guard Corps soldiers ran into the parade ground, the entire 5-kilometer cross-country demonstration ended. The slowest soldier took 21 minutes and 52 seconds. All passed.

On the distant mound, thousands of people from the Champagne Corps were silent.

They have always considered themselves to be one of the most elite legions in France, and have always looked down on other troops. Today, they know what the real elite is.

The slowest soldier of others was three minutes faster than the fastest Captain Lacoste on their side. And they were carrying 18 pounds of weight!

This dealt a devastating blow to their arrogant self-confidence.

Anyone who has truly experienced the battlefield knows that physical strength plays a huge role in fighting. Wars in this era often drag on for a long time because the firepower is not strong enough. It is common to fight from sunrise to sunset.

If the enemy's physical strength drops significantly, and you still have enough physical strength, you can launch a fierce attack, while the opponent can only passively defend. In addition, sufficient physical strength can also be used for large-scale maneuvers, such as flanking or outflanking, which are the keys to winning or losing!

However, there are still officers of the Champagne Corps who are somewhat unconvinced and talk about it, "It's just running. If we strengthen our training, we should be able to do it."

"That's right! Give me five months, no, three months, and I can run it in 22 minutes!"

However, the shooting test on the second day dealt them another devastating blow.

According to the test requirements, the Champagne Corps only had dozens of hunters, which are similar to the snipers of later generations, who met the qualified standards.

As for the Guards Corps, only more than 20 soldiers did not pass. To be honest, the smoothbore muskets of this era sometimes depend on luck - because there are no rifling, the bullet is likely to have Brownian motion after flying out, and no matter how accurate the aim is, it is impossible to guarantee that it will hit the target.

The twenty or so unlucky guys were teased by their teammates, and they were so angry that they went to practice holding the gun alone.

And Napoleon was unfortunately one of the twenty or so people.

However, he did not practice holding the gun, because he was an artilleryman and his shooting results could not be included in the assessment. And he also believed that firing a percussion gun was not a skill that must be mastered.

He made up for the logistics and supply in the tent - this was the content of the officer assessment, and he was still very unfamiliar with it.

Joseph never thought that if Napoleon had not been determined, his practice of recruiting the latter into the Guards Corps would almost destroy Napoleon's self-confidence...

In the next few days, it was still the Guards Corps that continued to "torture" the Champagne Corps with the assessment results.

The latter were almost numb to it - from running to shooting, from marching to fighting, they were crushed in all aspects, and if they didn't numb themselves, they would simply not be able to survive.

Until all the assessment items were over and the officers and soldiers of the Champagne Corps were ready to breathe a sigh of relief, the Guards Corps used the last day of joint training to give them the heaviest mental blow.

What kind of joint training is this? It's simply a large-scale "Versailles" scene.

From the first sight of the Champagne Corps close to the Guards Corps, tears of envy flowed from their mouths.

That woolen uniform with excellent texture and neat shape is several levels higher than the cheap ones on their own.

That unique percussion cap gun is said to have three fewer steps to load than the Charleville 1776 in their hands, and the range is more than 20 steps longer.

As for the benefits of leather boots, leather hats, free sewing, etc., they no longer want to compete with others...

When it was lunch time, the people of the Champagne Corps finally broke through the defense.

The soldiers of the Guards Corps ate beef with sauce. Although it was also pickled meat, it tasted more than ten times better after cooking. There were also boiled eggs, white bread and vegetable soup. They drank high-quality wine.

This is even better than the food for their officers!

The soldiers of the Champagne Corps looked at the hard bacon, black bread, and sour wine in their hands, and almost couldn't help but grab the food of the Guards Corps.

However, thinking of the other side's horrible shooting and fighting results, they still ate their "pig food" silently.

[Note 1] Sour wine is wine that has failed to ferment and has a sour taste. However, because these wines are cheap, they still have a large market among civilians.