War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Switzerland, somewhere in the mountains.

The first batch of tactical hot air balloons transported by the empire have arrived, but these babies are still too advanced for the Swiss who stay in the mountains all year round.

What's more, the Austrian professionals who know how to operate these big guys will not be easily sent to other countries.

As a result, these professional tactical hot air balloons can only serve as fixed-point observation posts, but they are enough for Archduke Karl, which is what he urgently needs.

Archduke Karl really wanted to find out the secret paths taken by the mountain people. If someone asked for directions, those people would probably not tell the truth, so the best way was to observe on his own.

Soon he discovered a place called the Karen Valley. Although this place had never received much attention, Archduke Karl concluded with his years of intuition that this would be the main battlefield in the future.

At the other end of the valley, General Henri Dufour was observing with a telescope. This was the door to victory that could end the war the fastest in his mind.

This winding and deep path is so small that it is almost ignored by people. It is not recorded on any map on the market, and it is even rarely mentioned in historical documents.

No one thought that he would attack from here. Because the Free Alliance had advantages in strength and equipment, it was the most reasonable choice to attack Lucerne from the front.

Of course, this ideal state often only exists in theory. Frontal combat is bound to be accompanied by greater casualties, but such a victory is not what Dufour wants.

Lucerne State will be the key to this war, because Friborg State, which belongs to the Orthodox Alliance, cannot be defended no matter what. Although the latter is surrounded by mountains, it is also connected in all directions.

Dufour did not believe that the enemy on the opposite side would block all the mountain roads, because it took the Swiss hundreds of years to dig them out. Even when Switzerland was attacked by Napoleon's French army, they were not willing to blow up these mountain roads. .

And even if they want to blow up, there are so many roads that they can't blow up in a short while. Even if they really dare to fight to the death, what will the people of Friborg eat then?

Without these roads, they don't even have salt, and they will overthrow the scum of the Orthodox Alliance without having to fight the locals.

In fact, Dufour had no doubt that the Free Alliance would win the final victory, but he just wanted to end this meaningless war at the minimum cost.

Because both in terms of paper strength and actual combat power, our side is far stronger than our opponents. The only thing the Orthodox Alliance can count on is foreign aid, and both France, Germany and Austria are the territory of the Free Alliance.

Judging from the situation, the Orthodox Alliance is in a state of being outflanked, and only the state of Ticeno, which is close to the northern Italian region, can receive assistance from the outside world.

But in fact, the local conservative forces have been infiltrated by liberals. Although the people still support the former, the top leaders of the local government have completely fallen to the latter.

Therefore, once the war begins, the Swiss Orthodox Alliance will be completely surrounded by the Free Alliance. If the former wants to retake Ticeno, it must first capture the Gotthard Pass.

The Gotthard Pass is a natural danger. In the past, a few hundred Swiss militiamen defeated tens of thousands of elite troops of the Holy Roman Empire here. It is not an exaggeration to say that one man can guard against ten thousand men.

Although Switzerland is mostly mountainous and easy to defend and difficult to attack, as long as Lucerne is captured, the Orthodox Alliance will be able to survive except for Valais, and other states will have no choice but to surrender.

Because Lucerne is the gate of the Orthodox Alliance, once the remaining states are lost, they will be at the mercy of others. But in the view of "pacifist" Dufour, there will be no war if it can be avoided. But whether it's a fight or a peace, he needs more soldiers and a lot of artillery.

At this time, the Freedom Alliance only had 50,000 troops, which was far from enough. Not long ago, Dufour had already made a proposal to the government to expand the army to 150,000, because only in this way can effective deterrence be provided.

However, the problem of artillery gaps has not been improved. The Swiss army now has less than fifty artillery pieces, most of which are still in the fortresses of the Orthodox Alliance.

Dufour's proposal was to provide five hundred new artillery pieces, of which no less than two hundred eight-pounders should be provided, so as to ensure sufficient firepower.

But this is obviously too much, because the French, the model of European artillery during the same period, were only equipped with about a thousand artillery pieces.

Moreover, the main artillery of the French army is still a six-pounder. The maximum range is between 1300-1500 yards, the rate of fire is 1-2 rounds per minute, and the weight of the gun is around 1500 pounds. Although they are all made in recent years, the technology used and materials are still much the same as they were during the Napoleonic period.

On the other hand, the situation of the Orthodox Union, the Swiss Catholic League, is somewhat worrying. Chaplain Belit and General Ulrich Salis were not well-liked at the Vienna Military Academy.

This is not because the Austrian side does not support the Swiss Orthodox Alliance or deliberately makes things difficult for them, but that these two guys are really useless.

Originally, Franz did not expect a magician like Belit to be able to fight, but he did not expect that General Ulrich was the best of the best. He was impulsive and irritable. He was a general who was good at attacking because of his hot temper. There are so many in history.

But this guy is not. When he is angry, he is neither impulsive nor sober, but chooses to behave badly.

Even if you drink alcohol, you can get drunk without alcohol. This makes the Austrian generals want to send this guy to medical school to study his body structure.

As for Priest Belit, he unexpectedly had military talent, but his talent was reflected as a soldier executing orders from his superiors, not as a commander.

This magic stick has excellent penetration and mountain combat skills, and is also proficient in marksmanship, knife throwing, and close combat, but these are of little use to the commander of the first army.

Next came the Swiss troops trained by the Austrians. These guys were also shocking. They were extremely undisciplined, to put it mildly, and simply undisciplined.

It is hard to imagine that this is the descendant of the world-famous Swiss mercenary. Although there are many mountains there, in the final battle, there is a high probability that the winner will be determined by lining up with guns.

A loose formation is easily defeated by the sudden appearance of enemy cavalry, and once broken it is almost impossible to regroup.

However, Franz was not worried about this problem at all, because although many modern equestrian competitions are held in Switzerland, it was a completely different story in the 19th century.

There are only 35,000 horses in Switzerland, and the vast majority of them are draft horses.

Although these horses are huge in size, they are not very fast and are not suitable for riding. They are usually used for plowing fields or pulling goods.

That's right, cattle are rarely used in Europe. Most countries use horses to plow the land.

(If you have watched a lot of foreign movies, you may still remember the scene in the movie "War Horse" where horses are used to open up wasteland.)

Incidentally, Prussia had nearly three million horses at this time, roughly the same number as France, which had 2.8 million.

Closer to home, in short, this time the Austrian generals are unfounded. The war in Switzerland is unlikely to encounter the same large-scale cavalry charge as on the European continent.

And in Switzerland, which is full of mountains and rocks, it is not difficult to find a parapet. What's more, compared to a quick decision, the two sides can stay in a stalemate for a longer period of time, which is a situation that all parties watching the war like to see.

Franz is certainly no exception.