The Rise of the European Emperor

The latest website: The Lithuanians are still slowly gathering soldiers and horses, but on the Austrian side, the army has gathered and is ready to fight. After all, in Austria, His Majesty the Emperor has the final say, unlike Lithuania, where quarrels start for a few months. Therefore, the gathering of soldiers and horses here is more agile than Lithuania.

The key to restricting the Habsburg family from sending troops is money. There is no way, the finances of the Habsburg family are miserable. The Austrian and Tyrol regions are inherently mountainous and less fertile. Therefore, the territory income is not very much. Moreover, the Habsburg family is huge and has many branches. Everyone is of noble royal blood, and they have to share a lot of income from the territory. Therefore, very few fell into the hands of His Majesty the Emperor.

Although the Netherlands is rich, His Majesty the Emperor obtained the ruling power through marriage, and his prestige in the area is not high. The great nobles of the local parliament were very resistant to giving money to Austria for expansion. Therefore, there is not much money that can be obtained there.

Fortunately, although the Austrian region cannot provide much money, it has abundant human resources and supports the rule of the Habsburg family. As long as the money is in place, there are still many people.

In addition, the Austrians at this time are not the Austrians of the later Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the period of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Austrians were obsessed with literature and music, and Vienna became the capital of music, but the fighting power of the Austrians declined sharply.

The same is true for the French. What literature and romance did in the 19th century directly lowered the fighting power of the people. But before engaging in literature and art, both the Austrians and the French were very brave and good at fighting.

There is no music in Vienna right now, and the Austrians still have a lot of tough mountain people. Therefore, His Majesty the Emperor has no shortage of warriors. After the 900,000 gold coins exchanged for immigrants and Marin, and the 500,000 gold coins loaned by the Spaniards were in place, His Majesty the Emperor began to expand his army...

Originally, in order to maintain the occupation of western Switzerland, the Habsburg family maintained about 20,000 to 30,000 troops. Among them, the most powerful is the Swiss Army led by Frundsberg. This legion has almost 15,000 people, mainly 10 infantry phalanxes trained by Frundsberg imitating the military system of the North Sea (each phalanx has 1,250 people, divided into 5 companies, each company has 10 squads), and 2,500 cavalry.

This army is mainly defensive. After all, the early Marin phalanx (Spanish phalanx) was characterized by digging tunnels for frontal defense. The main function of the 2,500 cavalry is actually to chase down the defeated enemy.

Facing the Marin phalanx, the Swiss Resistance Army in the west was also helpless. Although the Swiss spearmen are brave and good at fighting, but facing the hedgehog-like junior version of the Marlin phalanx, Zieg and his Swiss resistance army have nothing to do.

After all, when confronting Frundsberg's primary version of the Marlin phalanx, the first thing you encounter is not the enemy, but the three trenches in front of the formation. Under each trench, there are wooden pickets, step on them Just hurt your feet and lose your fighting power. No matter how brave the Swiss mountain people are,

The soles of the feet are also made of flesh and blood, and the shoes are also made of wood or leather, and it is difficult to step through the rows of wooden pickets.

The most important thing is that on the wooden picket, there is a row of five or six meter long spears. If you dare to pull out a wooden stake, or fill a hole with something, eat a spear first... no, not a spear, but a row of spears...

Moreover, there are one-third of the musketeers in the Marin phalanx. Do you dare to try to fill in the hole? Although the musket is far away, although the hit is poor, it is still no problem within 30 to 50 meters.

Therefore, the Swiss spearmen are helpless against the hedgehog-like junior Marlin phalanx. Even if the French provide a group of plate armored knights as infantry, they will not be able to break through.

It is better to use artillery, but there is a problem, that is, there are artillery on the opposite side. According to Marin's early combat habits, there are usually 50 artillery pieces lined up in front of the formation. Frundsberg also followed suit, carrying 50 artillery pieces in each battle...

Although His Majesty the Emperor was greedy for money this time and sold the artillery to Glinski, Marin quietly used the "cost price" to cast a batch of artillery with better quality for His Majesty the Emperor.

It should be pointed out that although the artillery that Marin cast for Austria is also a rear-mounted Franc cannon. However, the foundry technology of Beihai State is more advanced and the requirements are stricter. Therefore, the rear-mounted Francois machine guns currently used by the Habsburg family army, when the sub-guns and the mother guns are connected, basically fit tightly, and there is no gap to leak air. Therefore, it is better to use than the French-made Franc cannon of the Swiss Resistance Army.

Therefore, although the number was later reduced to 15,000, Frundsberg relied on its hedgehog-like defense capabilities to make the Swiss Resistance Army backed by France in the west helpless. The two sides have been in a long-term confrontation in central Switzerland, and no one can do anything to the other.

The difference is that the Swiss Resistance Army really can't do anything to Frundsberg's Swiss Army, and the reason why Frundsberg can't do anything to the Swiss Resistance Army is that there are not enough troops to launch a counterattack. The key to the shortage of troops is that the Habsburg family has no money to maintain an army of 30,000 to 40,000 for a long time.

This time, His Majesty the Emperor not only exchanged 900,000 gold coins from Marin, but also received a loan of 500,000 gold coins from the Spaniards, so naturally he would not run out of money.

Therefore, after receiving the money, His Majesty the Emperor immediately began to expand the army...

Because Marin provided a simple armor for inserting steel plates into the wallet, His Majesty the Emperor plans to give priority to expanding the cavalry this time. Originally, His Majesty the Emperor had a standing army of 12,000 armored cavalry. After getting rich, His Majesty the Emperor recruited another 20,000 knights and formed a heavy cavalry army with a number of 32,000.

That’s not counting, probably because the wallet with only 10 gold coins in it is very useful. His Majesty the Emperor recruited 5,000 more knights to form the armor with leather bags inserted in the steel plate and holding a two-handed sword. Heavy Infantry Regiment.

It should be pointed out that these 5,000 people all came from the knight families of Austria, Tyrol and Franche-Comté. Of course, these people are all offshoots of the knight family, or from poor knight families.

The offshoots of the knight family and the poor knight family may not be able to afford expensive war horses due to their poor economic conditions. In other words, it is not possible to equip war horses with offshoot children or knight children without inheritance rights. However, the offshoots of these knight families and the non-eldest sons of poor knight families have practiced martial arts diligently since childhood. At least, the two-handed sword is not something that ordinary peasant children can play. After all, it is a double-edged sword, and hurting others can also hurt yourself. If you play off, you will die.

The armor provided by Marin with the steel plate inserted in the leather bag weighs just over 25 pounds, which is almost half of the Gothic plate armor. Although the protection is not as good as the Gothic plate armor, Marin said that this kind of armor is enough to resist swords and bows, which is similar to plate armor. When encountering muskets... the plate armor is as unstoppable as the piercing armor, and the two are the same...

Therefore, wearing this kind of armor can also be regarded as a plate infantry. Moreover, because the weight is only about half that of ordinary plate armor, this kind of heavy armor infantry is much more maneuverable than plate armor infantry. After all, with nearly half the load, the endurance can be improved a lot.

Especially, when dealing with Swiss spearmen, this kind of heavy infantry is quite easy to use. Because the Swiss spears can't pierce this kind of armor with steel plates inserted. The two-handed sword can push away or even cut off the spear of the Swiss spearman, which is a great threat to the spearman.

In addition, His Majesty the Emperor also authorized Frundsberg to expand eight phalanxes by 10,000 people, bringing the total strength of the "Swiss Army" to 25,000 people.

In other words, in this wave, His Majesty the Emperor has expanded a total of 20,000 cavalry, 5,000 heavy armored infantry, and 10,000 infantry, for a total of 35,000 troops.

Naturally, the emperor's military expansion could not be hidden from the French and the princes who paid attention to the emperor. However, the emperor didn't care about it either, but took his time to train the recruits to adapt to the battle. In addition to the newly added 20,000 cavalry, which were handed over to the nobles who were loyal to the emperor, the 5,000 heavy armored infantry and 10,000 ordinary infantry were all handed over to Frundsberg by Maximilian I for training.

And Frundsberg did not take the heavy responsibility. Not only did he begin to skillfully train ordinary infantry, but he also studied how to use 5,000 heavy armored infantry—specifically, first let ordinary infantry confront the enemy in a Marlin phalanx. Then, let 5,000 heavy armored infantry hold two-handed swords, suddenly rush into the battlefield from the side, surprise the flanks of Swiss spearmen, and use the powerful protection and attack power of heavy armored swordsmen to destroy the formation of the Swiss Resistance Army. Then, the whole army goes out to destroy the opponent...

As for His Majesty's more than 30,000 armored cavalry, they are mainly responsible for chasing and killing the fleeing remnants. And, specifically to deal with French knights...

His Majesty the Emperor and Frundsberg knew very well that the Swiss Resistance Army was doomed to lose in this war, and the main opponent of the Habsburg family was still the French army. Therefore, there must be an earth-shattering knight duel at that time! And Maximilian I is known as the Emperor of the Knights. He especially wanted to defeat the French in what the French were best at, thus showing the great reputation of the Habsburg Dynasty.

Now, just waiting for the newly recruited 35,000 people to finish their training, they can launch a general attack on the western part of Switzerland...