War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Ambrosius was riding on a donkey holding a telescope, looking at the chaos inside and outside White Horse City, looking a little funny.

Ambrosius wanted to find a horse, but due to the mountainous terrain and climate problems in this area, the locals preferred donkeys to horses.

Donkeys have better endurance and are easier to feed, but they are less interesting as mounts.

The battle situation in front of him was very chaotic. After all, Ambrosius graduated from a military academy, and he hoped to fight a more "regular" war.

However, the current situation can no longer be controlled by him.

"Artillery ready!" cried Ambrosius.

The ten cannons of the Skitarii at this time were all moved from armed merchant ships, and even the gun mounts were temporarily built.

Although it is a bit crude, it is still many times more advanced than the Vietnamese artillery.

Fan Zhu also discovered this strange army outside the city, but when he saw the leader of the other party sitting on a donkey, he couldn't help laughing contemptuously.

"Knife players are ready to give them a blow."

At this time, nearly 10,000 Vietnamese troops gathered at the South Gate. In Fan Zhu's heart, these 10,000 people were fighting soldiers who had seen blood, and they were definitely not comparable to the cannon fodder at the North Gate.

Two thousand elites entering the city can completely capture the entire Baima City. The new enemy troops that appear are about 2,000-3,000. It should be more than enough to keep 8,000 troops.

Here, in order to prevent these temporary combat forces from suddenly collapsing, Ambrosius made them march in dense formations and columns as much as possible.

In fact, the mainstream of this period was skirmish line + queue. However, Ambrosius only asked the Austrian soldiers in his hands to form a shallow skirmish line, and the rest were several large infantry phalanxes.

Ambrosius did not have many professional artillery, and he used long-barreled heavy artillery removed from armed merchant ships, so the deployment was very slow.

The speed and decisiveness of the opponent's reaction also surprised Ambrosius. If the opponent had a cavalry team, he would probably suffer heavy losses now.

Because Ambrosius had been in constant contact with Chenla generals all year round, he found that they knew little about the role of artillery and were slow to start a war. After an order was issued, it might take several days for the army to execute it, so Ambrosius How dare you prepare artillery in front of the enemy's formation with such arrogance.

It's just that the Vietnamese seemed to send out shirtless knife players holding iron knives and wooden cards?

"Are they here to die? It seems that there are only two thousand people at most, but we have 4,500 people." Ambrosius couldn't help but sigh.

"Maybe they are here to die." Captain Bilafon pointed at the Vietnamese army at the city gate. They seemed to be cleaning something and trying to close the city gate.

"Only if their city can withstand artillery fire? What's the point of shutting it down or not?"

The power of artillery during this period had long exceeded the capabilities of traditional city walls, which is why bastions were the mainstream of European fortresses.

Even the walls of Constantinople could not stop the fire of modern artillery, let alone the simple walls of White Horse City, which were made of soil, trees, and stones.

Fan Zhu really wanted to let these cannon fodder die. He wanted to see the opponent's firepower and buy time to close the city gate. After all, siege warfare has been more beneficial to the defending side since ancient times.

And this White Horse City is the representative of a high city and a deep pool. If it weren’t for the fact that the Zhenla people guarding the city couldn’t be pulled away, and I came up with clever tricks, I really don’t know how long the fight would have lasted.

However, while Fan Zhu was still lamenting that his weapons were unpredictable, the Skitarii opened fire. The shells were not directed at the sword players rushing in front, but at the wall of White Horse City.

The solid shell fired by the sixteen-pounder gun hit the city wall directly, and the huge impact directly opened a large hole in the three-meter-high and one-meter-thick city wall.

This is not because the Austrians have advanced artillery, but more because the construction structure of the city wall of White Horse City itself is unreasonable. In addition, it has become a high-risk building due to hundreds of years of wind and sun.

At this time, the city wall of Baima City was bombarded by heavy artillery, and it was like a candle in the wind in just one round.

"How is it possible?" Fan Zhu murmured. His subordinates also found it very unbelievable, but instinctively wanted to persuade Fan Zhu to escape.

At the same time, the sword players on the front line also joined the battle.

To be honest, skirmishers are obviously not as useful as line infantry for this intensive charge of cold weapon troops. After two rounds of shooting, the Austrian skirmishers simply joined the queue directly.

At first, the swordsmen could tolerate the sporadic shooting from the skirmishers, but their morale was shattered in the first round of battle with the line infantry.

Due to the quality of the soldiers, even the pediatric tactic of three-stage attack can only be accomplished by the main force of the Skitarii. As for the temporary recruits, Ambrosius's requirement is that only the first column is responsible for shooting, and the following ones are responsible for shooting. The remaining columns are responsible for loading and delivering guns.

Even so, after a round of shooting, the Vietnamese army's sword players collapsed and fled around wildly. Some people ran towards Baima City, while others fled towards the mountains and forests.

If Ambrosius had a cavalry, he would definitely give the order to pursue, but he did not. With the impact of the donkey, he could only make the opponent laugh to death.

The remnant soldiers who fled into Baima City were not scary. What was scary were those who fled into the mountains and forests. They would become unstable factors in this land in the future.

Fan Zhu ordered the army to guard the south gate, while he led a large force to attack the north gate.

Although the city wall has collapsed in many places, those tall buildings still gave the Vietnamese army some psychological comfort.

However, the Austrian artillery soon began to fire again. Although Ambrosius had seen that the opponent's army was overwhelmed, he did not want to sacrifice any of his soldiers and decided to continue the bombardment, forcing the opponent to fight. Go out of the city to fight on your own.

Another point is that the Skitarii have a range advantage at this time, but once they enter the city for street fighting, the Skitarii's advantage will be greatly weakened, and they may even become passively beaten in street fighting due to problems with the firearms themselves. .

Heavy artillery bombarded round after round, and the ranks of the Skitarii were constantly approaching the city wall. However, the Vietnamese did not dare to fight back. First of all, they had no artillery. Secondly, neither bows, arrows, nor matchlocks were able to match the power and accuracy of the Guards. Compared with the rifles in the hands of the teaching army.

What's more, there are more than a hundred skirmishers on the Skitarii side, and the rifled guns in their hands are not ordinary.

The battle line at the South City Gate was still advancing in an orderly manner, while the North City Gate had turned into a mess. At first, the Vietnamese who suddenly came from behind Guan Jinpan and others made them fall into despair.

However, what happened next made Guan Jinpan and the soldiers defending the city very puzzled. After the large group of Vietnamese troops coming from the south opened the city gate, they did not join forces with the Vietnamese troops at the door to clear out the people in the city. Instead, the defenders fought with the Vietnamese troops outside the city, and the scene was very tragic.

In the end, the Vietnamese troops in the city broke through the defense of the Vietnamese troops outside the city and ran towards the mountains and forests.

Just as Guan Jinpan and others reorganized their defense, another Vietnamese army rushed towards the north gate. They seemed to be avoiding some terrible beast. In this way, Baima City was killed by the Vietnamese and passed through.

However, the Vietnamese soldiers seemed to have no intention of capturing the city, and they all fled towards the mountains and forests in the north. This made the Chenla defenders who were kneeling on the ground ready to surrender feel very embarrassed.

I will consider writing back to Europe tomorrow, but there are still some things to write about in Africa, such as the "Battle of Blood River". Garibaldi in South America. Leave a message if you want to see it, and if you don't want to see it, leave a message. I'll see which side has more. , decide again.

This is an extra update, counting votes and so on.