The Hessian army, in pursuit, was unaware of the situation ahead in Richmond.
Seeing the large Continental army forces converge, and despite having ten thousand men, it was impossible to swallow fifteen thousand American soldiers in one go, so they set up camp on the other side of General Greene's encampment, planning to first link up with Cornwallis' British army, and then slowly combine to eliminate General Greene.
General Greene was not idle; as soon as he arrived in Richmond, he immediately sent people into the city to contact General Arnold and Adams, asking them to cooperate in eliminating Cornwallis' forces, which were caught in the middle, ahead of time.
However, with the arrival of the Hessian army, he himself became the object of a pincer attack.
The positions of both sides were very close; basically, if one side fired cannons, the other could hear it.
It was estimated that this pincer movement could be launched immediately even without communication, and it would certainly be a situation of 'I'll pincer you, you pincer me,' with forces interlocked like dog's teeth.
As a result, General Greene had no choice but to change his mind and discuss a new plan with General Arnold.
The battlefield situation in Richmond was now incredibly strange and comical, resembling a four-layered sandwich.
This situation was immediately understood by the respective commanders after some mutual communication.
However, once the situation was understood, it caused great concern for the commanders of both the American-British sides.
On the American side, caught in the middle were General Greene, the supreme commander of the Southern Continental army, and Virginia's primary fighting force; on the British side, caught in the middle was General Cornwallis, the supreme commander of the British army in the United States, thus forming a dangerous balance.
With the supreme commanders of both armies caught in the middle, it even gave both sides a feeling of being hesitant to act, like throwing a rat and fearing to break the vase.
They dared not attack, but were also unwilling to retreat.
Ultimately, the commanders of both sides, by coincidence, chose to merely maintain sporadic sniping at the enemy's positions.
Neither side launched a large-scale attack.
Neither was willing to initiate a retreat, fearing that any movement would give the opponent an opportunity and break the balance, forcing an immediate battle.
However, this stalemate could not last long, because the two forces caught in the middle did not have many supplies and could not hold out for an extended period.
After more than half a month of deadlock, both sides finally lost their patience.
Shortly after Albany entered a stalemate between the American and British forces, General Greene, still with ample supplies, was the first to attack the British army.
However, his first target was not General Cornwallis' troops, who were caught between him and General Arnold, but rather the more than ten thousand Hessian army soldiers who were undefended behind him.
Thanks to a large number of cannons and muskets transported from Pittsburgh, the Continental army's equipment was now no worse than the British army's; in fact, if there were enough gunpowder, they could even equip more cannons than the British army.
General Greene did not have many cannons, but among his ammunition, there were quite a few fragmentation shells filled with Picric acid.
Charles once had the explosives research lab study the application of Picric acid, but the experiments with firing spherical cannonballs using Picric acid were very unsatisfactory.
For the same caliber, using Picric acid could certainly increase the range by nearly half, but because its explosiveness was too violent, the cannon barrel would need to be three times thicker.
Such a heavy cannon could only serve as a fixed fortress cannon, and because Picric acid exploded too quickly, the cannonball could not be fired indirectly, naturally limiting it to a siege cannon, which created a contradictory problem.
Therefore, cannons using Picric acid in this way were not as good as those using black powder, and their production was eventually abandoned.
However, this did not mean that Picric acid was useless in artillery; in fact, as a filler for fragmentation shells, it directly increased the explosive effect of the shells several times over.
After a dense barrage of fragmentation shells, the Hessian army, which had excellent defensive works, did not suffer many direct casualties, but the fierce artillery fire terrified many experienced mercenary soldiers, who believed that such a powerful explosion must mean General Greene was using a large number of fortress cannons to bombard them.
Coupled with dense shouts of kill and the sound of marching drums, they immediately moved into defensive positions, preparing to deal with the upcoming close combat and not planning to launch an offensive.
Although the Hessian army commander was surprised by the intensity of the American army's artillery fire, he was still full of anticipation.
He had just officially linked up with General Cornwallis, and the agreement was that if one side was attacked, the other would launch an offensive.
Now that the American army had chosen to attack him, General Cornwallis' side would certainly launch an offensive to cooperate in a pincer attack on General Greene.
He guessed correctly; upon hearing the American army's cannon fire, General Cornwallis instinctively thought he was the target and was about to order his soldiers to quickly take cover.
However, he immediately realized that the target of the shelling was actually the outermost Hessian army, which made his worry unfounded.
At the same time, the American army in Richmond City began firing cannons and deploying infantry, launching a fierce diversionary attack on his position.
Even without cover, the American army charged through a hail of bullets and arrows, attacking the makeshift fortifications.
Cornwallis immediately determined that the main focus of the American army's attack was the Hessian army, and the attack on Richmond was meant to tie him down.
He immediately ordered the British army facing Richmond to defend using makeshift fortifications, and the British army facing General Greene to seize the opportunity while General Greene was fully engaged in attacking the Hessian army, and immediately attack his rear.
As soon as the order was given, the troops quickly and smoothly assembled behind General Greene's rear, and under the cover of a few small field cannons, immediately launched an attack on General Greene's position.
The attack was beyond General Cornwallis' expectations; General Greene seemed to have placed all his hopes of tying down Cornwallis on Richmond.
His rear defense apparently consisted of less than a thousand men, with not even a single cannon.
He had originally worried that a dense charge would be met with artillery fire, but now there were so few men, and all the cannons were attacking the Hessian army; just by listening to the intense cannon fire, he knew it was impossible for any other cannons to be hidden.
Cornwallis immediately waved his saber, ordering five thousand British soldiers to divide into twenty columns and advance in sequence, launching a dense wave-like attack on General Greene's position, preparing to break into General Greene's position in one fell swoop and truly eliminate the American army through a pincer movement.
The first wave of British army successfully engaged in fire.
The second, third... tenth columns also entered the engagement, and the first wave of British army at the very front had less than half its men still standing and firing, while on General Greene's position, the thousand troops hiding behind makeshift fortifications were also nearly decimated.
Cornwallis even had a smile on his face... when several plumes of smoke suddenly rose from General Greene's position.
—
Rolling spherical cannonballs suddenly rained down densely on the British army.
The frontal lethality of these cannonballs was almost negligible, but for the British army advancing in neat formations, they were absolutely a harbinger of death.
"Crack, crack" the sound of bones breaking echoed among the British army, and a large number of British infantry fell.
This was not all.
Immediately after, a large number of Continental army soldiers, at least seven or eight thousand men, a dense black mass, suddenly emerged from General Greene's central army position and replaced the heavily casualties troops, launching a fierce counterattack against the attacking British army.
"Not good! It's a trap!" The cunning Cornwallis immediately realized.
"Whistle. Retreat quickly!"
A piercing whistle sounded over the battle between the two armies.
The British army had already shown signs of collapse almost as soon as they saw the large number of American soldiers emerge.
The first few columns, about a thousand men, almost all fell under the intense fire of the American army's smoothbore muskets.
The middle few columns also suffered heavy casualties, and even the last few columns of British army, who had just entered firing range, were disoriented by the sudden appearance of the Continental army.
Upon hearing the retreat whistle, those troops who had already turned around naturally did not need to be told, and even the last few columns of British army who had not yet entered firing range quickly turned and ran.
They ran all the way back to their main camp, stopping only after occupying their fortifications.
"Damn deceivers, despicable rebels.
They dare not fight a fair and square battle, resorting to these dirty tricks!" This time it was General Cornwallis' turn to stomp his feet.
This battle was a well-designed stratagem by General Greene; he merely used the dense artillery fire attacking the Hessian army as a cover.
In reality, he did not deploy infantry to attack the Hessian army, but instead kept his infantry ready to emerge at any time and shoot at Cornwallis' army attacking his rear.
Faced with dense artillery fire and shouts of kill, preparing for a charge, the Hessian army naturally held their ground firmly and would not sally forth.
And Cornwallis, in order to tie down and possibly ambush, would certainly deploy infantry to attack General Greene's camp.
At this moment, General Greene utilized the cannons firing old-style cannonballs and seven thousand regular troops, who were ready for battle, to suddenly appear behind the makeshift shelters and attack Cornwallis' infantry, successfully inflicting huge casualties on these exposed soldiers.
In this battle, on the American side, Greene's army suffered one thousand casualties, and the Richmond army suffered over one thousand casualties.
On the British side, Cornwallis' troops alone, who attacked General Greene, suffered over three thousand dead and wounded.
If the casualties from the artillery bombardment of the Hessian army and the British army responding to the Richmond attack were added, the total casualties just exceeded four thousand.
Aside from consuming some extra cannonballs, General Greene achieved a proud record of one to two in this battle of equal numbers, which was undoubtedly a very significant victory for the Continental army, whose overall strength was inferior to the British army.
The direct result of such a major battle was that both sides once again entered a period of rest and reorganization.
However, relatively speaking, the situation began to become unfavorable for the British army, especially for Cornwallis' forces.
He originally had only ten thousand troops, and this time suffered over three thousand dead and wounded, which had already affected his overall combat effectiveness.
If at this moment, General Greene disregarded his rear and fully attacked Cornwallis together with General Arnold from Richmond, he would probably be able to eliminate Cornwallis' forces before his own forces were severely damaged by the Hessian army.
The helpless Cornwallis had already thought of breaking out.
It wasn't that he was cowardly or afraid of death, but that the battle had reached a point where it was meaningless.
Regardless of who won or lost, both sides would pay a heavy price.
The greatest possibility for Britain was that Cornwallis would be annihilated, but his highly effective Hessian mercenaries would largely retain their full combat strength.
As long as Cornwallis could hold on for a bit, it was entirely possible to defeat General Greene and General Arnold after paying a heavy price.
But such a near-suicidal outcome was absolutely something no army commander wanted to see.
Unfortunately, the American and British forces were now interlocked like dog's teeth, with friend and foe mixed together, making it impossible even for a dignified mutual retreat.
Charles Cornwallis first thought of actively breaking out.
However, General Greene did not think so; this was, after all, American soil, and even if his own troops were wiped out, there would not be many Hessian army soldiers left.
Richmond was already far from the coast, and the Hessian army, unable to receive naval supplies, would absolutely not be able to escape from the Virginia guerrillas.
So, as soon as he saw Cornwallis' inclination to break out, he immediately had Richmond send troops to jointly intercept, not intending to stop the fighting just yet.
However, continuing to fight in the current state was truly disadvantageous.
Both sides stopped firing, and after a series of movements where 'you chased me and I chased you,' the formations of both sides eventually returned to their original state.
In his helplessness, Cornwallis had no choice but to send an envoy to negotiate with General Greene.
"This is truly an absurd suggestion!" General Greene laughed as he rejected Cornwallis' request for both sides to retreat to their original positions, loudly telling the envoy to convey his message to Cornwallis:
"We, the people of the United States, have long been prepared to perish together with the cruel British army.
Please, General Cornwallis, dress formally, and bravely face death like a soldier, unless he surrenders, we will never retreat!
Justice is on our side."
Cornwallis, being a British General who cared about his reputation, naturally could no longer beg for peace upon hearing such sarcastic remarks about his fear of death.
However, he also did not want to provoke another battle; instead, he believed that he was not without opportunity.
If the naval fleet could detect the unusual activity on his side and dispatch some reinforcements, perhaps those suddenly appearing reinforcements could break the current dangerous balance.
And General Greene, of course, was not truly thinking of a mutual destruction; he had actually already sent a fast rider to Philadelphia, hoping that Charles could send a force of no less than five thousand men to jointly eliminate the Hessian army and Cornwallis' forces.
Both commanders did not want to fight immediately; both hoped that their own reinforcements would appear, and then they would defeat the other side.
As a result, tens of thousands of soldiers were ultimately forced to confront each other densely in the small town of Richmond.