The sky was dark and the morning breeze was blowing. The moisture on the plains beside the lake spread between the sky and the earth, forming a thin layer of fog, which further reduced the already low visibility.
In the foggy darkness, only dozens of firelights could be seen beating forward. This is someone walking in the night holding a torch. If you walk a little closer, you can still find weapons condensed with morning dew, flashing between torches!
Eighty or ninety cannons of the Ottomans have been pushed to the forefront. The Ottomans like to use heavy artillery, and 3-pound and 6-pound cannons are not enough. They will also use 12-pound and 18-pound long cannons on the field battlefield. Most of the eighty or ninety artillery pieces concentrated on the Binhu battlefield are 12-pound and 18-pound long cannons, and the rest are mortars or 12-pound short-barreled cannons that fire explosive shells.
Because the 12-pounder, 18-pounder long or short cannon, and the 24-pounder mortar are difficult to move, the Ottoman artillery rarely moves on the battlefield. Moreover, in order to prevent the "immobile" artillery positions from being overrun by their opponents, the Ottomans were accustomed to dispersing their artillery far away from the enemy's positions and relying on their range to bombard their opponents at long distances.
However, in this battle, the Ottomans rarely deployed concentrated artillery. The 66 long guns used on the left-wing Lakeside battlefield were all concentrated in an artillery position less than one league (4 kilometers) wide.
At about 3:15 in the morning, the Ottomans' long guns revealed their muzzles one after another, and the well-trained gunners pushed the gunpowder and shells into the barrels. He took aim with the flickering fire in front of the Austrian army's formation, and then lit the fuse. Finally, with bursts of roaring, tongues of fire spewed out from each muzzle!
The Ottoman artillery was deployed on the plain two miles southwest of the lakeside. It was very close to the Austrian position, and the direct firing distance was only a little more than a quarter of a mile (just over 1,000 meters). The opponent's rifled gun can't hit that far at all, and at this distance, the long cannon can hit the enemy's position with your eyes closed - the position is so big and won't move, so you can just hit it casually.
But being able to defeat him does not mean defeating him!
Even the howitzers of later generations may not necessarily be able to damage the fortifications piled up with sandbags, let alone the solid bullets of the muzzleloader?
Therefore, the purpose of the Ottoman shelling was just to destroy the "Spanish knights" placed by the Austrians in front of the breastworks, and at the same time scare the "weak" Austrians.
Round after round of round cannonballs were filled into the barrel, and then spit out. Although the visibility is now very poor, the shells fired still landed on the Austrian position! Some of these shells hit the "Spanish Cavalier" and smashed it to pieces!
Some of them hit the parapet made of sandbags, and the shells immediately penetrated into the sandbags, as if they had been confiscated, and there was no response.
There are also some shells that hit the ground first, then bounced up suddenly and swept over the parapets - of course they couldn't sweep anything, because most of the Austrian infantry huddled behind the parapets.
Although the effect of the shelling was not very good, the sound of 66 12-pounders or 18-pounders firing at the same time was still very scary. It really shook the earth!
The ground shaken by the artillery fire was not just on the shore of the lake. On the right wing of the Austrian army's front, the front near the Danube River was also being violently bombarded by dozens of 12-pound or 18-pound bronze cannons.
News of the heavy shelling on both flanks of the battle line soon reached the fortress of Pozno where Archduke Henry was located.
"François, John, what do you think?" Archduke Henry, who had not slept all night, was still a little drowsy just now, but now he had chased away the sleepyheads and stood on the map table with his arms crossed in high spirits. forward. On the right stood a short and stumpy Francois Eugen, and on the left stood a pretty boy named John Churchill.
Francois Eugen smiled: "It should be a feint attack... I guess the Ottomans want to attack our left and right wings, attract our reserves, and then concentrate their efforts to break through the center."
John Churchill smiled and said: "I think we can open up the center, attract the main force of the Ottomans to the Pozno Fortress, and then defeat them in one fell swoop!"
Archduke Henry asked: "John, how should we defeat them?"
John Churchill said: "The troops can be divided into three groups. The middle group is responsible for luring and delaying the enemy, fighting and retreating, attracting the main force of the Ottomans to the front of the Pozno Fortress, and using the woods in front of the fortress as the final defensive position.
The right and left attacked violently, trying to defeat the Ottomans' feint attack force in one fell swoop. After defeating the Ottomans' feint attack force, the two armies on the left and right squeezed into the center, forcing the Ottomans to retreat. "
"But can the center be defended?" Archduke Henry frowned, "We only have seven divisions in total... If we have to invest heavy troops on both wings, how many divisions can be left in the center? Two? Or? One? Also, once the center retreats, will it shake the morale of the army?"
John Churchill said: "Two divisions are enough...I will command the center army, and I will definitely be able to withstand it!"
Can you really do it? Henry looked at the handsome boy John Churchill and felt unsure, so he turned to look at Francois Eugen.
"Your Highness," Francois Eugen said to Henry, "I think John's method is feasible, and I also believe in his ability."
Henry thought for a while and asked: "How to distribute the remaining five divisions?"
"The Grand Duke personally leads three divisions to attack along the Danube River to repel the Ottoman right wing... You can ask Count Daun to assist you in commanding. Although he is young, he is a very outstanding soldier." Fran. Sowa Eugen said, "I commanded the remaining two divisions to go to the Lakeside battlefield to break the Ottoman left wing."
The full name of Count Daun mentioned by François Eugen was Willich Philip Daun. His family had fought for the Habsburg family for generations and was granted the title of earl. After the fall of Vienna, he followed his father to join Emperor Louis. But as a German, Dawn never saw any chance to get ahead with Louis. So just six years ago, under the solicitation of Francois Eugen, he defected to Archduke Henry, who had no military strategists available.
Compared to Francois Eugen and John Churchill, two guys who "didn't look like famous generals", Earl Dawn seemed to be more reliable, with a mighty appearance, strict military management, and quick thinking, so Henry regarded him as It's quite reassuring.
"With Count Daun's assistance, I should have no problem along the way," Archduke Henry paused, "Francois, you only have two divisions, will you defeat the Ottomans' left wing?"
"Don't worry!" Francois Eugen nodded, "Victory will definitely belong to Austria under the blessing of God!"
...
"Boom boom boom..."
The shelling on the Binhu front line has lasted for nearly two hours - such long-term and large-scale shelling rarely occurred in field battles in the 17th century, because at that time everyone did not dig anti-gun fortifications and bombarded them. For two or three hours, the infantry on both sides couldn't stand it!
It's already hard enough to stand in line and be shot. If you were to stand in line and be shot for several hours, would the infantry be left alive?
And thanks to Zhu Cixi's "invention" and promotion, wooden pallets of explosive bombs have become popular... Who can queue up to be bombarded with explosive bombs for several hours?
So field fortifications began to appear on the battlefield. After the infantry went to the battlefield, they often dug a trench or piled something with sandbags, and then relied on the fortifications to resist shelling.
Because the infantry had anti-artillery fortifications, the artillery's work became very arduous. The bombardment took longer and longer, and more and more gunpowder and ammunition were destroyed.
In the Lakeside-Danube Battle that began in the early morning of October 12, 1700, the Austrian infantry built the largest field defenses to date, and the Ottoman Empire also concentrated a large number of artillery and conducted a long-term bombardment.
Especially after the sky got light, Mustafa Koprulu also ordered the 12-pound short guns and 24-pound mortars that had not participated in the bombardment to open fire, and smashed the 12-pound and 24-pound explosive shells into the Austrian anti-artillery fortifications. .
As large and heavy shells continued to explode, the Austrian positions on the shore of the lake were suddenly shrouded in blue-black smoke. The smell of gunpowder filled the battlefield, flowing slowly, choking people. Don't be angry.
(End of chapter)
