Chapter 2160： Austrian military expansion completed

Latest website: Lithuanians are still gathering soldiers and horses in a daunting manner, but on the Austrian side, the army is assembled and ready to fight. After all, Austria is the emperor who has the final say, unlike Lithuania, who quarreled for a few months before quarreling. Therefore, the gathering of soldiers and horses here is much more rapid than in Lithuania.

The key to restricting the troops of the Habsburgs is money. No way, the finances of the Habsburg family are terrible. Austria and Tyrol are inherently mountainous and less fertile. Therefore, the territorial income is not very much. Moreover, the Habsburg family is huge, with many side branches, everyone is a noble royal bloodline, and they have to share a lot of income from territories. Therefore, very few of them fell into the hands of His Majesty the Emperor.

In the Netherlands, although rich, His Majesty the Emperor obtained the right to rule by marriage, and his prestige in the local area was not high. The nobles in the local parliament were very resistant to giving money to Austria for expansion. Therefore, the money available there is not a lot.

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

In addition, the Austrians at this time are not the Austrians of the later Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Austrians were addicted to arts and music, and Vienna became the capital of music, but the Austrians' combat effectiveness dropped sharply.

The same is true for the French. The literature and romance in the 19th century directly reduced the national combat effectiveness. But before engaging in literature and art, both the Austrians and the French were very brave and fighting nations.

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 in exchange for immigration and Marin and the 500,000 gold coins loaned by the Spanish were in place, His Majesty began to expand his army...

Originally, in order to maintain the occupation of western Switzerland, the Habsburg family maintained about two to thirty thousand troops. Among them, the most powerful is the Swiss Army led by Frenzberg. This corps has about 15,000 people, mainly 10 infantry phalanxes trained by Frenzberg imitating the North Sea military system (each phalanx has 1,250 people, divided into 5 companies, and each company has 10 squads). And 2500 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 2500 cavalry was actually to chase down the defeated enemy.

Facing the Marin phalanx, the Swiss Resistance Army in the west was also helpless. Although the Swiss lancers are brave and good at fighting, they have nothing to do with the junior Marin phalanx like a hedgehog.

After all, when confronting Frenzberg’s primary version of the Marin phalanx, the first encounter is not the enemy, but the three trenches in front of the formation. Each trench is full of wooden pickets. Step on it. It hurts the foot and loses combat effectiveness. No matter how brave the Swiss mountain people are, their feet are also made of flesh and blood, and their shoes are also made of wooden or leather.

The most important thing is that there is a row of five or six meters long spears horizontally on top of the wooden pointed stakes. Do you dare to pull out the wooden picket, or fill the hole with something, eat a spear first... No, it's not a spear, but a row of spears...

Moreover, in the Marin phalanx, there are one-third of the musketeers. Do you dare to try to fill the hole? Although the musket is far away, although the hit is poor, it is still okay within thirty to fifty meters.

Therefore, the Swiss Lancer was helpless with the basic version of the Marin phalanx like a hedgehog. As far as the Chinese people provided a group of plate-armored knights as infantry, they were unable to break through.

The effect of using artillery is better, but there is a problem, that is, there are artillery on the opposite side. According to Marin's early combat habit, 50 artillery pieces were generally lined up in front of the battlefield. Frenzberg also learned something like that, carrying 50 artillery in every battle...

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

It needs to be pointed out that although the artillery that Marlin cast for Austria is also a Franco cannon after installation. However, Beihai Country has more advanced casting technology and stricter requirements. Therefore, the rear-mounted Franco machine gun used by the Habsburg family army now basically fits tightly when the sub-gun and the female gun are connected, and there is no leak. 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, Frenzberg relied on hedgehog-like defensive capabilities to make the Swiss Resistance Army backed by France in the west at a loss. The two sides have faced off for a long time in central Switzerland, and no one can do anything about it.

The difference is that the Swiss Resistance Army really can't help the Swiss Army of Frenzberg, and the reason why Frenzberg can't help the Swiss Resistance Army is that it has insufficient strength to launch a counterattack. The key to the lack of troops is that the Habsburg family has no money to maintain an army of 30,000 or 40,000 for a long time.

This time, his Majesty not only exchanged 900,000 gold coins from Marin, but also obtained a loan of 500,000 gold coins from the Spaniards. Naturally, he would not run out of money.

So, after getting the money, His Majesty the Emperor immediately began to expand his army...

Because Marin provided a simple armour for inserting steel plates into the wallet, His Majesty the Emperor planned to give priority to the expansion of the cavalry this time. Originally, His Majesty the Emperor had a standing army dominated by 12,000 plate cavalry. After getting rich, His Majesty the Emperor recruited another 20,000 knights and formed a heavy cavalry army of up to 32,000.

That's not a big deal, probably because I think the wallet with a set of 10 gold coins is very useful. His Majesty recruited 5000 knights and formed the armor with a leather bag and a steel plate, holding a large sword with both hands. Heavy infantry regiment.

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

The side branches of the knight family and the poor knight family, because of poor economic conditions, may not be able to afford expensive war horses. In other words, it is not possible to equip side children or knight children without inheritance rights with horses. However, these offspring of the knight family and the non-eldest children of the poor knight family have practiced martial arts diligently since childhood. At least, the two-handed sword is not something ordinary farmers can play. After all, a double-edged sword can hurt others as well as yourself. To play off is to die.

The leather bag with steel plate armor provided by Marin 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 type of armor is enough to withstand swords and bows and arrows, and it is almost the same as the plate armor. When encountering a musket... the plate armor is as unstoppable as this tie armor, and the two are the same...

Therefore, wearing this kind of tie armor can also be regarded as a plate armor infantry. Moreover, because the weight is only about half of the ordinary plate armor, this heavy armored infantry has a lot more mobility than the plate armored infantry. After all, the endurance can be improved a lot if the load is reduced by nearly half.

Especially when dealing with Swiss lancers, this heavy-armored infantry is very useful. Because the Swiss spear does not pierce the armor plate with steel plate inserted. The two-handed sword, which can poke or even cut off the Swiss spearman's spear, is a great threat to the spearman.

In addition, His Majesty the Emperor authorized Frenzberg to expand the 8 phalanx with 10,000 people, bringing the total strength of the "Swiss Legion" to 25,000.

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 expansion could not hide from the French and the princes who followed the emperor. However, the emperor didn't care either, but he did not hurriedly train the recruits to adapt to the battle. Except for the newly added 20,000 cavalry soldiers, which were handed over to the leaders of the nobles loyal to the emperor, the 5,000 heavy armored infantry and 10,000 ordinary infantry were all handed over to Frentz Bay by UU Reading . Grid for training.

And Frenzberg did not take a heavy burden. He not only began to skillfully train ordinary infantry, but also studied the use of 5000 heavy armored infantry—specifically, first let ordinary infantry confront the enemy with a Marin phalanx. Then, let the 5000 heavy armored infantry hold a two-handed sword and suddenly rush into the battlefield from the side, attack the flanks of the Swiss spearman, and destroy the formation of the Swiss Resistance Army with the strong protection and attack power of the heavy armored swordsman. Then, the whole army attacked and wiped out the opponent...

As for His Majesty's 30,000 multi-armored cavalry, they are mainly responsible for chasing and killing the fleeing remnant enemies. And, specifically against the French knights...

His Majesty the Emperor and Frenzberg knew very well that the Swiss Resistance was defeated in this war, and the main opponent of the Habsburg family was the French army. Therefore, there must be an earth-shattering knight showdown at that time! And Maximilian I was known as the emperor of knights, he especially wanted to defeat the French in the field where the French were best, so as to show the reputation of the Habsburg dynasty.

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