Chapter 204: The Fields of Vienna (1/2)

Berengar was mounted on his trusty steed as he gazed off into the distance. In his field of view were the borders of Lower Austria and his final destination in this conflict. While Eckhard laid siege to every corner of Upper Austria currently occupied by the Bavarians, Berengar would march on Vienna with nearly 20,000 men.

Berengar vowed that after he finally won this war, he would do two things immediately, develop a new weapon, and start building a great navy. Though Conrad might protest his every action, ultimately, as Regent, he had the power to accomplish these things. Besides, Conrad would live another few years at best.

As such, he greatly desired to finish this war and focus on consolidating his territorial gains as quickly as possible. To Berengar, war was a means to settle disputes and acquire territory; the more critical aspect was the development of the land after the fighting had ceased. As a visionary, he had grand plans to construct an Empire that would last a thousand years.

For now, he needed to take Austria and establish his dominion over the region, and that was precisely what he planned to do. With the death of the enemy General at the hands of Berengar's assassin, a nobleman had taken his place and decided that the best course of action to stop Berengar's siege of Vienna was simple, they would sally forth and deal with his army once and for all. They would use the citizens of Vienna as human shields.

Thus as Berengar and his army entered Lower Austria, they saw a large force gathered, close to thirty thousand in total. The citizens of Vienna had been conscripted by the Bavarians and armed with anything that could remotely be used as a weapon. They were placed in the vanguard so that they could soak up the bullets of Berengar's forces, allowing their main troops to survive the initial onslaught and close the distance.

Seeing the enemy formation, Berengar began to frown, he would prefer not to slaughter over 10,000 of Austria's citizens, but this would be not easy to avoid. The Bavarian forces were behind the vanguard of Austria's common folk and nudged them forward with their spears, bills, and blades. This was not a good situation. As such, Berengar contemplated for a few moments before coming up with a course of action. Thus he rode towards his Artillery units and gave his commands.

”Ready your guns, and aim towards the rear of the enemy formation. I want the levies to remain as unharmed as possible. We will break their rearguard and allow the citizens of Vienna to flee!”

Hearing their Lord and Commander's orders, the Artillery officers quickly set to the task of ordering the Artillery regiment to unhitch their cannons and deploy them in position. They were raised to a specific elevation to act as howitzers where the shells would be fired into an arc and land at the rear of the Bavarian formation, sparing as many levies live as possible.

This was a tactic they had yet to employ on the battlefield. Thus the Bavarians were not expecting such a thing as such Berengar left the artillery to their own devices and rode to the front of the infantry formation where he began to shout his orders to the infantry.

”Try your best not to harm the levies, when the guns go off and batter the Bavarian ranks, allow the Levies to disperse before firing upon the remaining Bavarian troops, those are most likely the civilians of Vienna, and we should not harm our people if we can avoid it! God with us!”

The soldiers under Berengar's command all began to shout their infamous war cry in unison.

”God with us! God with us! God with us!”

Afterward, Berengar raised his sword and gave another command.

”Foward march!”

Under the thunder of cannon fire, the Tyrolean infantry began to march towards the enemy position. The Bavarians sneered as they figured Berengar had decided to eliminate the citizen levies at the front of the formation. However, when the shells fell from the sky and landed among their ranks, the Bavarian forces quickly began to panic.

They were not expecting the shells to land behind their vanguard and devastate their ranks, completely disregarding the plan they had made. Two hundred eighty shells were fired every minute into the Bavarian formations, and their order quickly began to collapse. Blood, steel, and bone flew in every direction as the Tyrolean artillery battered the infantry lines.

Seeing that the Bavarians were in a state of panic, the citizens who were drafted into service of the Bavarians quickly began to flee the battlefield. Some were caught and stabbed by the men behind them, but most could escape the slaughter. Now that Berengar had bought the citizens of Vienna enough time to run, he began to lead the cavalry in a charge on the enemy position.