Chapter 128: Blood in the Snow

At the moment Berengar and his army were crossing into the Southern portion of Tyrol, his armies had recently split and headed in separate directions, and he was now in command of a force numbering roughly 5,000 men in total, half of which were his own forces. The other half of the army comprised levies from the southern Lordships, which supported Berengar's campaign to put down Lothar's rebellion and re-capture Tyrol from the traitorous lords who openly defied the authority of Duke Wilmar.

Unlike Berengar's army, which was filled with the most veteran members of his infantry and cavalry units. The peasant levies were poorly equipped, and many of them had never seen a battle in their lives. At most, they would act as cannon fodder for Berengar's forces; their role would be to soak up the enemy's missile fire while his troops gunned down the hostiles. At the moment, it was late in the morning but not quite yet noon, the wind was still, and all that could be heard were the sounds of thousands of feet marching to the beat of the drums as the infantrymen sang another one of Berengar's marching songs.

After crossing through the frosty crags of the alps, Berengar's forces finally found themselves in a position overlooking the city of Sterzing in the distance. However, to their surprise, they also saw an army marching towards them. It would appear that the enemy had opted to sally forth into the field in an attempt to intercept Berengar's forces and eliminate them before they entered the boundaries of the city. As such, Berengar shouted for his troops to hear.

"Form ranks!"

His commands were passed onto the Officers and the NCOs before finally reaching the enlisted personnel. With this command, the veteran forces of Berengar's army formed lines and began to load their weapons. The artillery battery also began to take an elevated position above the field below where the enemy army was marching. The cavalry did their jobs and took positions on the flanks, where they would soon be rushing the enemy army. There was no cavalry to speak of in the enemy's forces; in fact, much like everywhere else in Tyrol at the moment, the professional forces were all gathered with Lothar in Vienna, leaving behind small garrisons and large groups of levies to defend their homes.

There were a few noblemen and knights, but they quickly dismounted from their horses the moment they saw the overwhelming number of cavalry Berengar had brought with them. As such, the Cuirassiers of Berengars ranks slowly began to trod off at the enemy position while his infantry prepared their muskets. The levies at the moment were used to protect the flanks of Berengar's line infantry. With this formation rapidly assembled Berengars forces began to march slowly and uniformly towards the enemy army, the cavalry already beginning their charge.

As the cavalry charged towards the enemy, the thunder of the 12 lb cannons resounded in the distance as explosive shells were launched upon the enemy forces. The explosive blast and the shrapnel from the shells battered the enemy forces. Quickly turning the lightly armored levies into chunks of flesh and meat paste. Limbs were scattered, heads rolled, and blood stained the snow below. However, there was only one battery able to fire upon the enemy. As such, the numbers of the enemy forces who were affected by the barrage were significantly less than in Berengar's previous battles.

Berengar was naturally at the head of the cavalry and quickly pulled both of his pistols from Erwin's saddle; it was already loaded and prepared to fire; all that needed to be done was cocking the flintlock action, which Berengar and his Cuirassiers did in unison. The enemy had a few archers with them and began to fire on the steel-clad horses of Berengar's cuirassiers, at this period in history, barding was still an effective way to protect your horse, and as such, Berengar had spent a great sum of money armoring the horses of his cavalry, after all, they cost him a fortune to purchase, it would be a shame if they died so easily on the battlefield.

The arrows loosed upon his cavalry as a large volley fell from the sky as if they were raindrops, yet to the dismay of the enemy's forces, the arrows failed to gravely injure neither the horses nor the cuirassiers. Instead, the three-quarter's plate armor and the steel plate barding covered the majority of the cavalry's body, deflected the bolts as if a padded arrow was hitting them. If anything a few arrows found their way into the gaps in the armor, but these were not vital areas, and as such did little more than inflict pain upon the riders and their horses.

As such, the enemy levies quickly raised their spears, anticipating a clash from the heavily armored Cavalry forces, however before such a situation could occur, the horses strafed out of the direction of the spear walls and galloped to the side. While the horses maneuvered in this way, the hundreds of Cuirassiers pulled on the triggers of their two pistols and aimed down the enemy at point-blank range.

As the hundreds of pistols went off, they quickly cut through what meager defenses the levies were equipped with and shredded the bodies of the men who made contact with the lead balls. Blood-curdling screams filled the air as the blood of the levies splashed upon their comrades. After firing their shots, the cuirassiers quickly stowed away their pistols and unsheathed their heavy cavalry swords as they rerouted their horses into a full-scale charge.

By now, the enemy ranks, which was comprised of mostly greenhorn levies, were filled with terror and dread as they were pushed forward by the somewhat more veteran forces behind them into the meat grinder. They could not help but think to themselves that the weapons in which Berengar and his army wielded were some form of vile sorcery gained by consorting with the devil's minions. These were an uneducated and superstitious bunch, and the propaganda the Church put out about Berengar filled their fearful minds as they walked ever closer to the enemy formations.

When the musketeers finally got within firing range, they formed a proper firing squad with the first column kneeling and the second holding their rifles above the heads of their kneeling comrades. The Officers gave the orders to fire, which resulted in over a thousand lead projectiles flying down range and into the bodies of the levies advancing upon them.

With a single volley, the hostile peasant levies were quickly overwhelmed by Berengar's technological superiority, many of which had begun to break ranks and flee back to the city. As for the brave souls who remained and continued to fight Berengar's forces, they were quickly cut down by another volley of fire before even reaching their enemies.

Unlike previous battles, Berengar did not immediately give chase. Instead, he raised his fists and gave the opposite order.

"Halt!"

With that, his forces came to a sudden stop. The levies of Berengar's forces were thanking god that their lords were wise enough to join forces with Berengar, for if it were them who had marched upon such an army, they too would be lying dead in the snow. After gazing upon the violent remains of the battlefield, Berengar noticed a sea of corpses whose blood had drained out onto the snow below. The grim sight had left those uninitiated among Berengar's ranks feeling sick to their stomachs.

After standing in the cold gazing upon the grizzly scene, one of the Lords who had backed Berengar finally snapped out of his daze, the scenes of the battle that had just been waged consumed his sense of reason for quite some time. Now that his mind had returned to him, he asked Berengar about the routing enemies.

"Should we not pursue them?"

Berengar merely shook his head and pointed his blood-stained sword at the piles of hundreds of corpses that lay scattered across the frost-covered ground before speaking the thoughts on his mind. A wicked grin was on his face as he revealed the details of his plan.

"They have already paid a great price for rebelling against us; when the survivors return to the city and inform the garrison of what they have witnessed here today, how do you think that will affect the morale of the defenders? When we finally lay siege to this city and unleash the power of our guns upon it, do you think they will still have the will to fight?"

With that said, the lords who had backed Berengar instantly thought what would have happened to them if they had chosen to stand with Lothar against Berengar, and they shivered at the chilling thought. Surely their cities would be next. Luckily for them, they had chosen to back the right horse.

Without allowing the lords time to respond to his remarks, Berengar raised his sword in the air and commanded the army behind him.

"I want a siege camp built before sundown! Forward March!"

With that, the army that had suffered few casualties in this battle began to march upon the City of Sterzing, where they would lay siege to it for the next few days. Though Berengar had no way of knowing how his other two armies were faring, he had a feeling that they were in a similar position to him right now. As such, he smiled as he rode on horseback into the vicinity of the City of Sterzing.