Chapter 14 Chapter Thirteen Depression

Lawrence placed the ground crew across the Saale in a countryside that descended into a very hidden forest defile that was not easily seen from above.They all stood together, the strongest of the men in front with axes and guns in their hands, Cairns and the messenger behind.They swaddled the eggs securely, next to a small stove screened off by a curtain. "Since you left us, sir, we heard gunshots approaching," said Flewis anxiously, as he and his men inspected the damaged saddlery. "Yes," Lawrence said, "they took our position and we were forced to retreat to Jena." He felt as if he was speaking from afar, and great fatigue and weakness took hold of him, but he He couldn't show it, "Give all the flight crew a certain amount of rum, Mr. Roland, Mr. Dale, if you want, take charge of this matter." After finishing speaking, he relaxed.Emily and Dale passed the rejuvenating bottle and a wine glass around and each drank a little.Lawrence drank his last drink gratefully, and the fiery liquid took immediate effect.

He turned around and communicated with Cairns who was guarding the dragon egg. "No harm at all," said the surgeon. "It will stay like this for a month." "Can you tell when it's going to hatch?" Lawrence said. "I don't know what else will change." Keynes said grumblingly, "Three weeks to five weeks, maybe I should say so." "Very well!" said Laurence, and sent him to look after Temeraire.In case, in the passionate battle just now, or in the sorrow that had not been noticed, Temeraire had hurt his muscles by overextending his wings and flying with all his strength.

"They may well have raided us," said Temeraire sadly, as Keynes climbed onto his back. "Those poor formations, oh Laurence, I should have said more and let them hear." "There's hardly any hope of you doing it in this situation," Lawrence said. "Don't beat yourself up, and better think about how to modify these formation movements in the simplest way, without causing more confusion. I hope we able to persuade them to heed your advice, and now, if so, we will correct their major tactical blunders at the expense of not more than a skirmish. The lesson is clear and we should be thankful that nothing worse has happened .”

Within a few hours of the morning, they arrived in Jena.The troops are heading towards the town, getting closer and closer, and the troops are gradually tightened.The French captured much-needed supply wagons at Gera, and the town's supply depots were all but empty.Temeraire had only one lamb to eat.Sue had stewed the lamb and added a little of the spices he had collected, so Temeraire ate well, better than the rest of the team, who could only drink hastily cooked porridge and roasted meat. Deal with very hard bread. There was an unpleasant murmur throughout the camp as Lawrence walked by the fire.Those Saxon soldiers who fled the field were complaining that they endured the shock of the surprise attack and did their best to stop the French.To make matters worse, however, the Prussians suffered another defeat. Facing the French advance, General Tarntsen, after retreating from Hof, withdrew the troops that attacked Marshall-Sulter and fell directly on Marshall Burt. Nadat's force, which ended up letting itself run over the frying pan into the flames, lost four thousand men before finally deciding to retreat.It was enough to worry anyone, let alone those who thought the war would be easily won.There was no sign of the extreme self-confidence that they had displayed in the early days of the war.

When the dragon landed on the field, the peasants on it fled in haste, leaving only a few ramshackle farmhouses behind.Dale Hearne and other Prussian pilots had taken over these houses as improvised resting places. "I don't think there's any alternative," Lawrence said anxiously, unfolding the chart, "just make some easy adjustments. At the last moment, no matter how risky desperate changes are, we have to Try it, it's better than doing nothing and waiting for disaster to happen." "It would be kind of you not to say that, that's all I can say to you," Dale Hearne said, "but I'll listen anyway, fine, we're going to put a dragon in command and see what we can do Something, at least we don't have to sit in camp licking our wounds like dogs after a war."

He and the other colonels sat dejectedly at the nearly empty table, drinking in silence.Now that they had regained their energy somewhat, and tried to make a new attempt, Dale Hearne cheered up the colonels entirely by sheer force of personality, reprimanded them for their sluggish spirits, and then dragged them out and pushed them onto the dragon himself.The act lifted them up again, and Temeraire was not the most listless.When they were all assembled and happily began training, Temeraire sat up with wide, bright eyes, and showed them the newly devised flight pattern. For this flight mode, Lawrence and Granby only simplified, and did not make much contribution.Temeraire's fine maneuvers, performed without thinking, surpassed the physical agility of most western dragons.Even at a much slower pace, after so long normal training, the new pattern still gave the Prussians some difficulty at first, but the accuracy shown by their regular training slowly paid off, and after After a dozen or so attempts, they made enormous progress despite being exhausted.Some of the other dragons of the unit also began to get up to watch, and soon their officer was up too.When Dale Hearne and his formation finally landed to rest, the other colonels quickly gathered to inquire about the situation.It didn't take long for the other two formations to fly into the air for practice exercises.

However, in the afternoon, new changes appeared in the battle plan and their practice was interrupted.The troops regrouped towards Weimar in an attempt to fall back to protect the lines of communication between the troops and Berlin, so that once again Long led the way.After hearing the news, everyone complained again.Before, there were orders to advance and changes everywhere, which could be refreshing, because the advance is seen as the inevitable change of the war, but now there is a confusion of orders to retreat, as if the French can do it with a small victory or two. It was like sending them home, and everyone was furious about it.The confusion of orders also speaks to an even more disturbing lack of decision-making among commanders.

In the midst of this conflict came further news that, in response to Hohenloch's vague orders, the hapless Prince Louis had crossed the Saale to the present position.And in fact Hohenloch meant to advance, although the order to advance the same was not fully sanctioned by Brunswick or the king.The entire force never ended up heading south, and it's clear that Hohenloch took his plan seriously. "He issued a new retreat order." Dale Hearne said bitterly when he got the news from one of Prince Louis' adjutants. The adjutant's horse limped while crossing the Saale River, and he could only struggle on foot. Returning to camp, "But by the time we got the news, we had already acted, and our prince didn't even survive an hour. So Prussia lost one of its best soldiers."

It cannot be said that they were resisting or rioting. It is true that they were very angry, but not discouraged.The feeling of success in the afternoon disappeared suddenly, and they all silently went to several open spaces to check the packing situation. The obnoxious noise of the messenger dragon leaving the camp indicated that another useless meeting was in progress.In the morning, before dawn, Lawrence was awakened by the gust of wings. He walked out of the tent barefoot and shirtless, and wiped his face in a bucket of water. To wake someone up.Temeraire still lay asleep, breathing warmly from his nostrils.Salier looked up warily as Lawrence peered into the cramped half-sized tent, where he and the snoring Allen were on the night shift for Dragon Egg, the warmest part of the camp with double Wrapped in layers of cloth, coals are burning in a brazier.

They were now hiding in some lanes north of Jena, just to the east of the Prussian troops, almost in one piece.By night, the Grand Duke Brunswick's own forces had shifted and were now closer to them.There were campfires all over the countryside, their smoke mingling with the smoke of burning towns in the distance.Last night, due to lack of food and too many bad news, Hohenloch's troops rioted and panic was everywhere.To the south, they again saw the French advance, and several supply wagons that should have arrived had not yet arrived.Especially with the arrival of the Saxons, who started out as a hesitant alliance and are now completely untrustworthy.

When separated from the rest of the camp, Lawrence didn't see too many unpleasant incidents, but before calm was restored again, several buildings were already on fire.The morning air is now acrid and smoggy from drifting dust and smog.It was the thirteenth day of October, and they had been in Prussia for a month, but they still hadn't heard a word from Britain, and the country, ruled by the armed forces, made the position fraught with uncertainty.Holding tea, he stood alone on the edge of the open space, looking north, feeling homesick.He felt so deeply that lack of connection can be so anxious, and he almost never wanted to return to his hometown, not even when he was a thousand miles away. At dawn, the sun showed a few rays of light, but due to the heavy fog, the light looked cold, and the thick gray mist covered all the camps.Oddly blocked by mist, and the sound could only travel a short distance, or seemed not to know where the sound was coming from, one would see many ghastly figures moving silently, coming from another direction. Disembodied voices were heard floating above.These people move slowly, work in silence, tired and hungry. In the morning, just after ten o'clock, the order came: the main body of the troops would retreat north through Alstette, and Hohenloch's troops would stay where they were and cover the retreat.Lawrence read the order silently, without saying a word, and returned it to Dale Hearne's courier.He cannot blame a Prussian commander for an order given to a Prussian officer.As word of mouth spread through the camp, the Prussians themselves said nothing. "They say we should give the French a run for their money here, and I think they are quite right," said Temeraire. "Why are we here if there is no war? We should stay in Dresden because we The march that is going on appears to be a flight." “This is not the place for us to say these things,” Lawrence said. “There may be some smart people, with intelligence that we don’t have, who can figure out all the exciting forces.” They cannot move as fast as they want, all the time.Three days had passed since the dragon's poor meal, and since the order for a new march or war was issued at any moment, there was no order for them to take any action, at least for now, it seemed that there was no possibility of any action.Temeraire began to doze off, dreaming of eating sheep.Lawrence said to Granby, "John, I'll see if there's any higher land beyond this damned fog." The flat-topped Landgrafenberg overlooked the highlands and valleys of Jena. Lawrence once again asked Pattenhall to be his guide, and the two climbed up the mountain together through the narrow valley.The gorge opened up to wooded slopes, interrupted in places by thorny blackberry bushes.Further up, the passage disappeared in some tall grass that no one had ever mowed, and the slope was too steep to climb up.Although the taller trees have been cut down, the horizontal open space has been trampled down by sheep.The two sheep looked up indifferently, then ran into the bracken. After an hour of hard climbing, they reached the top of the mountain sweating profusely. "So..." Seeing this beautiful scene, Patton Hall waved his hands, not knowing how to express it.Lawrence nodded.A ring of blue smoke shut off the distant view, but from an ideal vantage point, the bowl-shaped floor of the valley lay before them like a living map.The graceful hills were covered with slowly yellowing beeches and smaller evergreens, some of the white-bark birches had lost their leaves so much that only the trunks stood.The fields are almost all brown and flat, the crops have been harvested, and they are silent under the faint light, simplifying these scattered farmhouses into an incomparably beautiful scenery. A thick cloud was moving slowly westward, blocking the morning sun from their current vantage point, and the shadow crept forward, over the mountain.In contrast, a section of the Saale River was nestled in the middle of the mountains, winding forward, and the sun shone with dazzling light, and Lawrence's eyes were shaken until tears flowed out.The wind picked up, and the crackling of fallen leaves and twigs on fire sounded all around, at first like the sound of a ship just sailing, but the sound continued as if there was no end to it.However, there was another silence.The air smelled and tasted strangely drab and hollow, with no animal fragrance or smell of decay, and the ground was hardened with frost. From the other side of the hill from which they had come, the Prussian soldiers were waiting in line, obscured by the thick blanket of fog.But as Brunswick's corps began to march north towards Alstette, the sun shone brightly on the bayonets.Lawrence cautiously looked towards the opposite direction, which was the direction of the town.No definite sign of the French in sight, but the fire at Jena is being extinguished.The orange glowing remnants, which looked like coals from this height, were being extinguished one by one with vague cries.Lawrence vaguely discerned the shape of the horse pulling water back and forth to the river. He stood there, staring at the battlefield for a while, gesticulating to Patton Hall, occasionally saying a few words in French that both of them understood, and then neither of them spoke.A gust of wind blew a thick column of smoke from the town, and to the east, a dragon came into view, it was Lian, flying quickly across the river and the town, stopping and circling for a while from time to time.For a moment Laurence was so shocked that he had an illusion that she was flying towards them.But it was only for a moment, and soon he realized that it was not an illusion. Button Hall took his arm, and the two of them lay on the ground together, crawling towards the blackberry bushes, the long thorns pulling them.After climbing about twenty feet, the two found a shelter hollowed out from the ground and brambles, the work of sheep.When they settled, somewhat dismayed, the branches rustled, and a moment later a sheep struggled and staggered into the little hole, leaving clumps of wool on the thorns, a good refuge indeed.When the white dragon folded its huge wings and landed gracefully on the top of the mountain, the sheep fell tremblingly beside them, perhaps seeking a little comfort from the humans. Lawrence waited nervously.If she had spotted them and was going to hunt them, a blackberry grove wouldn't delay too much.But she looked into the distance, interested in what they had just watched.Her appearance was different from before: in China, he saw her wearing fine gold or rubies.In Istanbul, she wore no jewelry at all.But now she wore a quite different ornament, a sort of diadem, set at the base of the mandibles and hooked cleverly around the mandibles and under the chin.This thing seemed to be made of gleaming steel instead of gold, and in the middle was a huge diamond the size of an egg. Even in the faint morning light, this diamond still shone brightly, unable to conceal her arrogance and pride. A figure in the uniform of a French officer fell off her back and slid to the ground.Laurence was very surprised to see that she had tolerated a passenger, but this one did not look like a normal person.The officer wore nothing on his head, short and thinning black hair, and wore only a black chaser's fur coat, a pair of high black leather boots that came close to his hips, and a heavy-duty sword hung from his waist. "The scene here is really beautiful, all the hosts gathered together to welcome us." He said in French with a strange accent, raised his binoculars, and especially watched the Prussian army moving on the road to the north. "We've kept them waiting too long, but it won't be long before they're taken care of. Soon Davout and Bernadate will send us those troops. I don't see the king's banner, you see it?" "No, we shouldn't have set up an outpost yet, just waiting here to look for it, so that there is no cover." Lian said in a tone of disapproval, seemingly indifferent to the situation on the battlefield, and the blood red in her eyes was not so strong. "Come now, with you by my side, I'm sure I'll be safe!" the officer laughed and reprimanded her. Buttonhall grabbed Lawrence's arm convulsively. "Bonaparte!" the Prussian hissed as Laurence looked at him.Lawrence turned his head abruptly, and leaned tightly against the thorns to get a better look.The man was not particularly short, he had always imagined the Corsican from the descriptions in the English newspapers, and in fact he was more compact than short.Now, he seemed rejuvenated, his huge gray eyes glowing, his cheeks a little flushed from the wind, and he was even handsome. "Take it easy!" Bonaparte added. "I think we can give them another forty-five minutes to send another division on the way. A walk will make them think more correctly." Most of the time he walked up and down the ridge, staring thoughtfully at the plateau below with a beastly expression, while Lawrence and Buttonhall had to suffer great rage for their own men.Suddenly, there was a tremor beside him, Lawrence turned his head and saw Button Hall's hand was holding on to the pistol, and the captain's face showed a terrifying resolute expression. Lawrence held Patton Hall's arm, stopping his movement.The young man immediately lowered his eyes, his face was pale, and he lowered his hands shyly.Lawrence silently shook his shoulders vigorously to calm him down.He was well aware of the temptation, and it was impossible not to have the wildest idea, for the architect of all the disasters of Europe was standing within ten yards of them.If there was any hope of capturing him, whatever fate befell the individual, of course they should try, it was their duty, but it was unlikely that they would succeed by breaking out of the bushes and attacking him.Their actions will first alarm Lian, and based on personal experience, Lawrence knows very well how quickly Tianlong will act.Their only possible chance was in fact a pistol, sneaking up on his unsuspecting back from a hidden position, but circumstances did not allow them to do so. Their duty was clear; they had to wait, hide themselves, and then find a way to get back to the tent as quickly as possible and tell everyone that Napoleon was tightening his claws on them.Honorable victories can only be won by enduring momentary bitterness.But to carry out this mission, every minute counts.It was a painful torture to be forced to watch the emperor contemplating like this, having to be quiet and composed. "The fog is clearing," Lian said, her tail twitching uneasily, squinting at the Hohenloch artillery position, and now everything was in sight. "You shouldn't risk it like this, let's go right away, other than that, you've got all the reports you need." "Yes, yes, my nurse!" said Bonaparte absently, and then looked through the telescope again, "but seeing it for yourself is a different matter. From this altitude, in my There are at least five errors in the map, which should be known even without inspection, and the gun on their left is not a three-pounder but a six-pounder." "An emperor should not be a scout!" she said emotionally. "If you don't trust your subordinates, you should replace them instead of doing their job." "Don't admonish me like that!" said Bonaparte with feigned indignation. "Even Berthier hasn't spoken to me like that." "He's supposed to tell you when you do something stupid," she said. "Come on, you don't want to lure them here, let them try to take the top of the hill." She added, a little coaxingly. "Ah, they missed their chance," he said, "but well, I'll bear with you. Anyway, it's time to act." He finally took down the binoculars and stepped into the cupped paws that awaited him, It's as if he's used to having a dragon run all of his life. As soon as she was gone, Barton Hall crawled out through the thorns, not caring about the damage the thorns caused.Lawrence followed closely, crawled into the open space, and stopped to look for the French army.The fog was fading and clearing away, and now he could see clearly beyond Jena, where Marshall Laner's regiments were busy piling up munitions and food at supply depots, salvaging wood and supplies from the wreckage of burnt buildings , Build an empty fence.Although Lawrence looked through his telescope in every direction, he found no sign of any other large French force, certainly not on this side of the Saale.Exactly where Bonaparte wanted his men to come out and attack, he still had no idea. "However, before he can gather people together, we must control this high ground!" Lawrence said to himself a little dazedly.From this position, the artillery squadron was able to gain an advantage over the high ground.They wondered why Bonaparte wanted to occupy it, since he had already gained a foothold in the rear. Then, in the woods in the distance, like opening a box and jumping out of the toy box of a strange villain, many dragons suddenly appeared, not the light dragons they encountered in Saalfeld, but medium-sized dragons that were the main force of the air force : The "Catcher" dragon and the "Butterfly" dragon, they broke out of formation, flew over at high speed, and then landed in the middle of the French army defending Jena, looking a bit strange in appearance.Looking carefully through the binoculars, Lawrence realized that the dragons were loaded with men, not only their men, but entire regiments of infantry, who were clinging to silk carrying saddles of the kind they had seen in China. It is the same as the saddle used by the arriving citizens for ordinary transportation, but the people on it are denser. Everyone carried guns and backpacks, and the largest dragon carried more than a hundred people.Their paws were not idle either, laboriously holding boxes of ammunition and countless bags of food inside.Surprisingly, there were also nets full of live animals, which had been put in pens, scurrying about frantically, knocking down walls, and falling on their faces, as Temeraire had not long ago Like the pigs caught on the mountain that were anesthetized.Lawrence's heart sank, and he suddenly realized how clever this plan was. If the French dragon carried people in this way, it would surely bring many more people. This is an army that can support them through this terrible area. force. Ten minutes later, about a thousand people had assembled on the ground, and the dragon had returned to start a new transport.Lawrence reckoned that they had come from hardly five miles away, but that five miles had no roads, and was all thick forest, cut off by great rivers.What would normally take hours for a legion of men to cross, can now land in a new location in just minutes. Lawrence simply couldn't imagine, and didn't have time to think about how Bonaparte got his men to agree to be tied to a dragon and carried from the air.Button Hall couldn't say a word, so he pulled him away and ran away.In the distance, the large dragons "Tears in the Air", "Great Chevalier" and "War Song" rose from the sky. They are huge and imposing, and they are marching towards the top of the mountain.They carried neither food nor ammunition, only guns. Lawrence and Patton Hall rushed down the steep mountain road.They are constantly braking, slipping, climbing, and running on cobblestones.When the dragons landed on top of the mountain, dust and dry leaves flew up and stuck to their faces.Halfway down the hill, Lawrence stopped and ventured one last look behind him: the large dragon was setting down two or three battalions of soldiers, who immediately dragged their guns to the leading ridge and unhooked the dragon's belly harness. , put down a lot of spherical solid shells and shotgun shells. At the top of the hill, they faced little challenge, but also had no chance of retreating.The war unfolded as Napoleon had envisioned it, everywhere in the shadow of the French guns.