Although Austria is mostly mountainous, the Vienna area in the east happens to be a rare plain area.
Dorgon took a fancy to this, and because his army was good at fighting in winter, he led an army of 300,000 people southward.
At this time, the strength of King Qin's army under the city of Vienna had reached 700,000, twice that of the invading enemy.
The Austrian army did not receive reinforcements in terms of strength. Hussein only received about 10,000 cavalry, 500 steam tanks, 36 heavy artillery, and hundreds of light artillery, plus a large amount of food and grass.
The good news is that the new batch of aid includes one hundred machine guns, bringing the total number of machine guns equipped by Hussein's troops to two hundred and fifty, and they are all new guns that have not been fired much.
It is expected that one hundred new steam tanks and one hundred machine guns will be obtained after the year, but it seems that the other side is already starting to make moves...
After more than half a year of confrontation with the Austrian army, Leopold could no longer bear the enemy blocking him at the door of his home again. This behavior made him feel very bad and disgraced him.
As the only emperor in the whole of Europe, it is probably not a glorious thing to be besieged in his own capital by an enemy whose military strength is far inferior to his own.
What's more, if they can't win on the battlefield in Vienna, which has superior strength, then it won't be possible to relieve the siege of Bratislava.
Vienna is not only the heart of the Holy Roman Empire, but also the heart of all Europe. It must not be taken away by the damn enemy.
For the glory of the Holy Roman Empire, for the glory of the Habsburg family, and for the faith of the entire Europe.
In this battle, we must defeat the invading enemy and achieve a victory worthy of being remembered by future generations!
It was not until December 15th that Leopold decided to launch an attack.
This is because the Austrian army has difficulty adapting to the cold winter, and once the enemy is defeated, it is easier for our cavalry to hunt down the opponent's infantry who are difficult to escape from the battlefield.
There is not much vegetation on the plains in winter. If our attack is frustrated, we can still return to the city. If the enemy fails, they will have no choice but to flee south.
The only problem is that although the Austrian army did not besiege the city, they dug a large number of trenches around their camp in order to hold on for a long time.
Similar to the time in Budapest, as long as the coalition forces want to attack, they will face this difficult problem.
Hussein's strategy was to attack strategically, and then start tactical defense once he reached the designated battlefield.
Especially after listening to Jamal and others introduce the last battle on the west bank of the Danube, Hussein became more determined to use this new tactic.
Two trenches were dug, the outer one was used to block the impact of the opponent's chariots and cavalry, and the inner one was used as a shelter and fighting room for one's own infantry.
It can be said that except for poor sanitary conditions, everything else is okay, especially being able to save lives, which is the most important thing.
The entire army has more than 40,000 revolvers, and the firepower of these weapons alone is equivalent to the previous more than 400,000 mounted infantry.
Therefore, it only appears that the Austrian army is weaker than the opponent in terms of superficial strength. In terms of actual firepower competition between the two sides, the Austrian army has a considerable advantage.
If the enemy did not take the initiative to attack, Hussein would not be tempted to send troops there, and a large amount of ammunition would be needed to cover the infantry attack.
When the situation is unclear, stability is the priority and you must not make mistakes easily.
As the commander-in-chief of the entire army, making even a small mistake can lead to the death of thousands of people.
Judging from the current situation, whether he or Leopold makes a mistake, the cost will definitely be more than thousands of lives...
On the morning of December 15th, the sky was already gray with falling snowflakes, and the visibility on the ground dropped to less than a thousand feet.
It was this kind of weather that Leopold was waiting for. It would not only cover his own infantry attack, but also greatly reduce the enemy's artillery advantage.
Since smoke grenades were still effective last time, Leopold also asked the tank equipped with mortars to carry a lot of smoke grenades, which could be discharged while walking.
Night attacks were no longer considered. Leopold consulted Schaumberg and other generals for their opinions on night attacks, and finally gave up this method of attack.
If you cannot win, especially if you are discovered by the enemy halfway, then the so-called night attack is actually a blind attack, and it will also cost the soldiers their lives.
No matter how bad the visibility is during the day, it is still much better than at night, making it easier for one's side to command and organize soldiers.
Especially since the 500,000 infantrymen participating in the attack all carried breastplates that could completely withstand enemy bullets, and were covered by a large number of tanks, the previous situation would never happen again.
In order to cooperate with the infantry attack, the coalition forces dispatched more than 5,000 tanks at a time.
A large part of it was modified from a four-wheeled carriage, but with a steel plate in the front and three layers of wooden boards in the back, it can completely withstand direct fire from small cannons.
After ordinary infantry were equipped with breastplates, the soldiers responsible for front-line charge were also issued with iron shields and upgraded to top-shield infantry, which also took into account bomb dropping.
Due to the rapid expansion of the force, the infantry firepower can only be barely sufficient with the addition of purchased and self-produced muskets.
Not to mention flintlock muskets, even spring-loaded muskets cannot be installed by low-level officers.
In order to make up for the firepower gap between each other, grenades became the best choice.
All officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers below the rank of major must carry at least two grenades.
As long as you rush to a distance where you can throw bombs, you must throw all the grenades on your body to the opposite side.
After the infantry has done its best, the rest depends on the performance of the chariots and cavalry...
The huge casualties paid in the Battle of Budapest were not in vain, at least Leopold learned the tactics of coordinated advancement of multiple arms.
Except for the airship, the coalition forces have everything they should have. Even if the counterfeit version is not as good as the original version, as long as a sufficient number is ensured, it can still play its due role.
In this bad weather, it doesn't matter whether there are airships or not. Maybe there will be a chance to shoot down a few Austrian airships.
Leopold deployed 100,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry on the front as a feint attack and diversion.
Two hundred thousand infantry and forty thousand cavalry were deployed on the left and right wings. Not counting the soldiers in the tanks and the coordinated artillery, the total number of troops invested was as high as six hundred thousand.
Leopold knew very well that if he invested too few troops, he would not be able to penetrate Hussein's position, let alone severely damage or even defeat the opponent.
If you want to win more money, you must place enough chips in advance.
Taking into account that the weather conditions had reached his psychological expectations, coupled with the fact that the size of the troops was up to standard and various preparations were relatively sufficient, Leopold was confident of repelling the invading Austrian army at his doorstep.
This kind of weather is more favorable to the attacking side, but if the visibility is too low, gathering troops will also be problematic.
Fortunately, there is no need to charge in formation. Just gather people according to their respective battalion and company-level combat units, and then the officers will listen to the rhythm of the drummer and bugler, and the command post will push forward.
The first half is walking, the second half is running, rushing into the enemy's trenches as fast as possible, just like the situation in Budapest.
At the Battle of Budapest, Leopold won a tactical victory and captured two castles.
Hussein won a strategic victory, not only forcing the opponent to retreat, but also pushing back to the city of Vienna.
Now Leopold was about to win a strategic and tactical victory.
Braving the falling snowflakes, the Allied officers and soldiers began to launch a three-sided attack on the Austrian positions from the east, north, and west.
The temperature on the battlefield was about minus ten degrees, which was not too cold. In addition, the wind was not strong, so it did not affect the attack of the coalition infantry at all.
The Austrians did not discover the enemy's actions until they were about half a mile from their own positions.
At first, the enemy appearing in the distance was just a line formed by densely packed small black dots.
It was full, and the black lines were superimposed, turning into a giant reptile that kept crawling towards itself.
Fortunately, Hussein had already ordered wooden stakes to be nailed at different distances in four directions for artillery range measurement.
Once an enemy is discovered passing a wooden pile at a predetermined position, the artillery does not need to measure the distance. Instead, the artillery can directly learn the distance to the target by looking at the wooden piles painted with different colors and fire quickly.
Now mortars have become the protagonist on the battlefield. Although the new heavy artillery is powerful, mortars that fire grenades are more lethal against enemy infantry groups.
Red flares symbolizing enemy attacks soared into the sky. Hussein was temporarily unable to judge whether Leopold had launched a full-line attack, and could only order all ministries to stand ready.
As pieces of allied infantry gradually entered the Austrian army's field of vision, the defending side began to be surprised because there were so many targets that needed to be eliminated.
Large groups of enemy troops were found in three directions, and Hussein was unable to determine the opponent's main attack direction.
The machine guns are still deployed according to the order of 80 on the north side, 60 on the east and west sides, and 50 on the south.
Using the soil dug out from the first trench, Hussein ordered the soldiers to build an earth wall around the second trench so that the infantry could form two lines of fire.
A five-meter-high mound was also built for each machine gun. The field of vision and shooting range are better than those on the tank.
Trenches, earth walls, and mounds can form three firepower networks: high, medium, and low.
Combined with the three-layer blocking lines of heavy artillery, mortars, and cannons, a cross-dimensional defense system can be formed.
Since they were equipped with armor and shield soldiers and chariots for cover, the chance of the coalition infantry being directly killed by bullets during the charge was very low.
Most of them were knocked down by mortar shells, and the hit areas were mostly concentrated in the back and legs. Most of them were non-fatal injuries, but the injured soldiers could indeed lose their combat effectiveness.
Fortunately, the firing rate of the Austrian mortars was not very fast, and the coalition infantry was very large in number. The human sea tactics were used to offset part of the Austrian artillery advantage.
Even if the pure white snow is gradually stained red with blood, the coalition forces will not hesitate.
This time is a battle to protect the homeland and the country. There are no cowards on the battlefield, only indomitable warriors!
Due to their numbers, more than five thousand tanks rushed to a distance of about a thousand feet, but only nearly a thousand were destroyed by the Austrian army.
Not only did it effectively cover the infantry attack, the gunners also fired frequently with small cannons.
Although the hit rate is not flattering, it can play a role in boosting morale.
As long as the infantry sees that a large number of their own tanks can continue to move forward, they will not retreat easily.
Fortunately, the Austrian machine guns can still have a good killing effect at a close range of two to three hundred feet.
Since the machine gun positions were located behind the two trenches, they were protected by tanks and infantry.
Therefore, as long as the enemy does not rush through the second trench, the machine gunner is relatively safe.
If the opponent can clear up the machine gun position with one shot, that's another matter...
On the mound, there were sacks of soil in front of the machine guns as temporary bunkers.
In addition to the initiation attack, it is difficult for the opponent to directly destroy the Austrian machine gun position.
To be precise, as long as the machine gun is not damaged, even if the machine gunner is injured and killed, all it takes is a replacement.
Hussein trained many backup machine gun groups, just in case.
According to field tests conducted by Leopold's personnel, the breastplates equipped by our own infantry can only protect against enemy rifle bullets from a hundred feet away.
"At most" is because the quality of the breastplates cannot be consistent and has always been uneven.
A good quality breastplate can protect you from a hundred feet, while a poor quality breastplate can protect you from a hundred, fifty or sixty feet.
It also means that when one's own infantry enters bombing range, the role of the breastplate is gone.
For Leopold, this bulletproof distance was enough.
The purpose of equipping the breastplate is to allow the infantry to survive the most difficult advancement distance. In the last more than a hundred feet, courage must be used to determine the outcome.
Seeing that the opponent was serious and that its offensive seemed to be difficult for his side to stop, Hussein ordered the launch of tactical missiles.
Shoot out all the thousand missiles brought, ignore the range, push them directly to the mound and launch them at close range.
The target is the infantry, and even if one missile is exchanged for fifty people, it is worth it.
If they could get 500 more machine guns, they might not be so passive.
Now is not the time to save money, we must spend it all at once.
Unless the opponent is attacking a phalanx of hundreds of thousands of people, the Scud's long-range hit rate will not be higher than 50%.
But at a close range of less than 500 feet, it's basically a matter of hitting wherever you go.
The price is that targets that can reach close range are basically worthless, and enemy generals fighting on the front line are another factor.
After being ready, each "Scud" roared towards the prey.
This was the first time for the coalition infantry to see such a weapon with a fire-breathing tail, and they were a little at a loss for a while.
As it hit the ground and exploded, fireballs rose into the sky, and the wounded soldiers nearby screamed. Only then did everyone suddenly realize and hurriedly evade the surrounding area.
This weapon seems to be more terrifying than a mortar, because judging from the scale of the explosion, it should be more powerful than an artillery shell, and one can kill at least twenty or thirty of our own companions.
Fortunately, our side is now charging in a skirmish formation. As long as it does not hit the rear of the chariot, where the soldiers gather, the damage caused will not be very great.
According to the standards of the Ming army, Hussein's orders and killing effects were considered improper use. The targets of tactical missiles are usually the opponent's square array or high-value targets.
Now I don't care about that much anymore. It's better to fight it out in one go than to be captured by the opponent after defeat.
