In the flat and open fields, the golden helmets of the French Dragoons shone in the sun. As the agile war horses walked proudly in the marching pace, the mane and tail decoration behind their helmets were also shaking rhythmically. After experiencing the disastrous defeat of the French-Prussian War, some French generals believed that large-scale cavalry operations were no longer suitable for the development of the war, but similar proposals were eventually rejected, on the grounds that the French people were emotionally unable to accept the disappearance of the cavalry. Therefore, when the war broke out in 1914, the number of French cavalry divisions ranked first among the participating countries, and the distinction between breastplate cavalry, dragoon and light cavalry was preserved according to tradition.

In the first few weeks of the war, French cavalry wearing shiny helmets became an excellent target for German riflesmen. Some cavalry officers asked soldiers to wrap their helmets in blue cloth for this, but this practice was neither recognized by superiors nor became a common phenomenon. In the forefront of this team of French dragods, the burly Major Ngoy held his chin, stood his neck, and his chest to take off a proud rooster. He wore a black top made by the Dragod officer, wore a silver erectus and cut feathers, dark breeches and black leather boots with spurs, and the pistol holster was made of polished black leather, which was very cool from head to toe.

A cavalryman who was exploring the way back returned, merged into the cavalry line from the side, and reported to the major: "We have arrived at Grimathew, and the manor ahead is the designated combat assembly place for the division headquarters. We heard... that manor is the private property of Senator Mr. Bennard, and in peacetime he often entertains VIPs from Paris."

"I understand!" The major's tone seemed dissatisfied. Seeing that the manor was three or four kilometers away, he ordered loudly: "Everyone trot forward!"

The speed of the cavalry can be divided into ordinary marching, rush marching, trotting forward and full-speed sprint. After speeding up, the sound of horse hooves suddenly became much denser, and the "pony tail" behind the cavalry's helmets became more elegant.

Like infantry units, cavalry will also send reconnaissance outposts accordingly when fighting and marching. The French cavalry who were exploring the way forward first arrived very close to the manor. They scattered and looked vigilantly at the open fields. There were no German soldiers around, but there was no one in the huge manor. At this time, the French cavalry would definitely wonder: was it that the people ran away, or was the people inside unwilling to have any connection with the soldiers on both sides of the war?

Major Ngoy didn't care at all about the strange atmosphere here. He led his cavalry troops to the manor. During this period, the French cavalry sentry did not mean to open the gate of the manor, but waited for the commander to arrive. In less than a quarter of an hour, Major Ngoy and a large group of cavalry arrived at the gate of the manor. The major turned over and dismounted, and was about to enter and requisition the manor. The French cavalry suddenly shot rain-like bullets. The French cavalry were not prepared at all, and twenty or thirty people fell off their horses in a blink of an eye. The French cavalry near the gate dismounted and fought one after another. The cavalry a little far from the gate quickly rode their horses to avoid being exposed to the enemy's machine gun fire in dense formations.

With amazing reaction and pretty good luck, Major Ngoy rolled and crawled under the wall, and his body was unscathed. Seeing the corpses of his soldiers, he was furious and led the cavalry who dismounted to fight against the enemy through the wall. The lower half of the wall of the manor was bricks and stone, and the upper half was iron fence. The overall height was not very high, and there was no difficult wire. The major originally wanted to send the riders to climb over the wall into the manor after suppressing the opponent's firepower, but the opponent's combat power was obviously beyond his expectations. Moreover, most of the enemy's shooters were on the second and third floors of the building, and had the advantage of shooting against the French cavalry. Within a few minutes, more than a dozen French cavalry outside the wall fell down.

Realizing that the situation was not good, Major Ngoy quickly ordered the riders around him to put concealment first, and could not find the target of shooting, and the gunfire in the manor gradually weakened. The French cavalry who did not dismounted were retreating on their own in an extremely unfavorable situation and gathered again outside the range of enemy guns and bullets. As long as Major Ngoy gave the order, they would still enter the battle unstoppable.

If the main gate of the manor could be opened and the horse-riding cavalry launched a forced charge, it would be impossible for the major and the riders around him to have neither explosives nor grenades, and they would not have been able to use the butt to break the door lock with the enemy's dense guns and bullets. The heavy cavalry company with towing wheels equipped with machine guns and cavalry artillery was slow and was still far behind. It was meaningless to continue to hold on outside the wall. Major Ngoy observed everywhere, and then he could not help but move west along the wall along the wall. They found a low sewage canal and then slowly and carefully evacuated the battle along the canal.

With stains on his body, Major Ngoy blew a whistle and several dragon cavalry rushed over, one of them stopped beside the major and reached out to him. The major took advantage of the force to get on the horse without hesitation, thus returning to the reassembled cavalry unit.

A rough count was that this battalion of dragon cavalry lost more than 70 riders and more than 80 horses. Nearly one-third of its combat power was lost, but he didn't even see the opponent's appearance. The battle was so cowardly, and it also showed that the opponent's cunning. Ngoy's telescope in a box was broken. He asked another battalion officer to come to the telescope, observed the manor for a while, and then said to his subordinates: "The number of German soldiers in this stock must be not large, otherwise there would be no need to hide it like this."

But not everyone is as persevering as the major. A cavalry company commander responded with lingering fear: "It is estimated that they have three to four machine guns, and at least two platoons of riflemen, and occupy a solid, wall-protected building, which is very unfavorable to us."

Major Ngoy glanced at him coldly: "The German troops attacking Amiens have more machine guns than any of them we have encountered before. It may be William's Royal Guards, elite and powerful, but the overall scale is relatively small. While the large German troops are far away from here, we should capture the manor, annihilate this small German reconnaissance force, and capture a few prisoners. It is best to catch their officers and can definitely interrogate valuable information."

This sounds like a very good idea, the key is whether this battalion of cavalry has the ability to defeat the German unit occupying the manor, even if they are indeed just a small reconnaissance force.

Major Ngoy saw the concerns of his cavalrymen, and he said righteously: "This group of Germans just focused all their firepower in one direction, caught us off guard, and wanted us to mistakenly think that they were very powerful and to retreat on our own with fear. We surrounded the manor and launched an attack from all sides at the same time, so that they could lose sight of each other. As long as we had a team of people entering the manor, blew the door of the main hall, and rushed into the house on horseback. The narrow aisle and room were not conducive to the transfer of machine gun battle positions, but we could easily cut off their heads with cavalry swords!"

After saying that, the major drew his sword, walked to the side and sat down, and wiped the sword body with his handkerchief over and over again. It was not until more than half an hour later that the heavy cavalry company came with two Hatchacas machine guns and four 65mm cavalry cannons that he suddenly stood up and ordered the cavalry with his eyes shining: "Pedite, you lead the second company to attack from the south; Moreo, you lead the third company to attack from the east; Simon, you lead the fourth company to attack from the north; the others attack from the west with me. Start an attack on time in fifteen minutes. Let's set off now!"

This is a decisive and leaves no room for negotiation.

At the same time, Warrant Officer Vachevika crawled on the roof of the manor building, holding a telescope to observe the French cavalry retreating to the distance. When he saw the opponent unfolding machine guns and artillery on the spot, and divided all the cavalry into three, one team left in place, and the two teams circled to the north and south sides respectively, and one team had a significantly higher number of cavalrymen, and the other two teams, he immediately realized that the opponent was preparing to attack in all four directions.

As the commander of this French Dragoon unit expected, Warrant Officer Vouchervaca had only one cavalry reconnaissance platoon. He eliminated the orderly soldiers who went to report the news, and had only twenty-seven people in total. Fortunately, they were equipped with four Madsen light machine guns and relatively sufficient ammunition. The concentrated firepower shot just now was equivalent to the half-company infantry's platoon gun fire, so he could give the French cavalry a heavy blow.

Before the battle began, the young warrant officer asked his two non-commissioned officers to circle the house twice and reported to him the main structure of the building. There were two passages up and down the stairs, one was the gorgeous staircase in the main hall, and the other was the ordinary staircase in the corridor. Thinking that it would be difficult to prevent the French army from entering the manor with the force at hand, Warrant Officer Vachervika had a sudden inspiration and quickly ordered the soldiers to pile motorcycles at the staircase in the main hall, block the staircase with tables, chairs and furniture, and all the staff retreated to the second and third floors. In terms of firepower, four Madson light machine guns were deployed in four directions, and the riflesmen were distributed equally. Four sergeants who were equipped with pistols formed a mobile team to obey orders on the third floor.
Chapter completed!