Chapter 2180: The emperor sent troops and built a battalion

Remember [New] for a second,! In the Swiss region, after adequate preparations, His Majesty the Emperor decisively ordered the dispatch of troops. This time, the Habsburg family gathered 32,000 heavy cavalry, 25,000 infantry from Frenzberg, and the newly formed epee warriors, who were made up of the children of the unhappy knights without horses, wearing leather bags and steel plates. 5,000 people, a total of 62,000 troops, marched mighty towards Bern.

Originally, Maximilian I planned to attack Bern in two separate ways. All the way south from Basel, after passing through a mountainous area to Olten, it turned southwest and went straight to the north of Bern. The other road starts from Lucerne in the middle and heads towards Bern from the east.

However, after obtaining the topographical map reference provided by Beihai Kingdom, Adolf Müller, a young general under the emperor's command, suggested to abandon the east route and mainly take the northern route of Basel.

why? Because the terrain in the north is flatter! It is true that Switzerland is a mountainous country, but it is high in the south and low in the north. To the south are the Alps, which are naturally high, while the north, although not very flat, is much flatter than the southern region. At least, from Olten to the southwest, there is a wide valley sloping to the southwest. When you arrive near Bern, you will encounter undulating mountains.

As for the 60,000-strong army of the Habsburg family, if they took the eastern front, they would all be mountainous and narrow. The strength of the large corps cannot be used on narrow mountain roads. The so-called cavalry advantage is not an advantage at all. Only in the relatively wide and flat canyon area to the north did the cavalry have room to deploy.

After discussing with the generals under his command, the emperor approved Muller's suggestion. However, in order to distract the Swiss resistance army, the emperor arranged for 1,000 epee warriors in leather bags and steel sheet armor, with 5,000 infantry, a total of 7,000 people, and swaggered in the direction of Lucerne to launch a sheep attack from the east. , to confuse the Swiss Resistance. Moreover, this team is not responsible for storming the fortress, it is only responsible for building momentum. In the event of encountering a large number of Swiss resistance troops, the emperor allowed them to retreat to the city to defend. The main force of 55,000 people, including a large number of people who were forced on the spot, followed the northern route.

And after the Habsburg army set off, Adolf Müller got busy. With the cooperation of a large number of epee swordsmen, Adolf used force to recruit many farmers in the Swiss mountain villages near the marching route to help transport food and grass materials. Among them, farmers with the skills of masons and masons became the key recruits.

During this march, His Majesty the Emperor was extremely cautious. After all, the 55,000-strong army was finally pieced together by the poor Habsburg family. Missing this opportunity, the Habsburg family will probably no longer have the opportunity to gather tens of thousands of troops. Without him, Harburg is too poor to hire so many troops...

And Adolf Müller also shined brightly on the march, becoming a star in the Habsburg army.

During the march, Adolf Müller used the agile mountain people recruited by force as a guide to explore the road ahead. The main thing is to check whether there are soldiers in ambush on the nearby hillside. And, as cannon fodder for stepping on traps, lest the soldiers fall into the Swiss traps.

This method really worked very well. The ambush arranged by Ziger and the traps arranged by people along the way were basically cracked by these old mountain people one by one. Don't even think about setting up ambush on the slopes on both sides of the mountain road, just ask the mountain people who are exploring the road to discover...

What? You said those mountain people were forced to not cooperate because they were forced to? The question is simple, Adolf Müller chooses men with families. If they don't cooperate, the family is in danger...

And when it comes to camping every night, the construction camp under Mueller's command is also excellent! This time the Harburg army marched very slowly, advancing only 20 kilometers per day. The construction battalion then quickly began building the fort.

In order to ensure that the camp was not attacked at night, Mueller first ordered the strongmen to start digging trenches around the camp when the army stopped and started to set up camp. At the same time, people with the craftsmanship of masons were arranged to use the soil to burn adobe bricks to build the walls around the camp.

What? You don't know what adobe is? This is very simple, just knead the soil into the shape of a brick, then bake it hard with a fire, and a adobe is formed...

You say this adobe is not strong? Indeed, this thing is not very strong. If you encounter artillery, any small cannon that can fire two or three pounds of cannonballs can blast through such an earthen wall made of adobe.

but……

This time, the Habsburg family army faced not the French army with many artillery pieces, but the very poor Swiss resistance army. Although the French also supported some artillery pieces of the Swiss Resistance, they were generally used for the defense of Bern because of their small numbers.

Moreover, the Swiss mountains are vertical and horizontal, and the transportation of artillery is very inconvenient. The Swiss are not Marin, they don't know how to cage the ball bearings on the wheels of the gun mount, and even the gun mount with wheels does not have it, which is extremely inconvenient to transport the artillery.

Therefore, the Harburg army did not worry at all that the Swiss resistance troops who raided the camp in the middle of the night would carry artillery. In this way, those adobe walls will only face some mountain people with backward weapons, which is completely sufficient.

Moreover, outside the earth wall, there are at least two trenches blocking it. The bottom of the trench is full of wooden pickets...

In addition, those adobe bricks were mixed with thatch before the fire, as "skins", similar to the walls of adobe houses. There is thatch as the "bones", and the strength of the hardened adobe is OK. In addition, there are trenches on the periphery, and there is no fear of the Swiss resistance rushing into the camp. Inside the camp, building bunkers or something is not so fast. After all, the bunker is made of stone, and it needs to be strong, not as fast as building a wall with adobe. Fortunately, there were ditches and walls blocking it. At first, the army could live in tents.

...

Sure enough, this rudimentary defensive measure was very effective. The mountain people of the Swiss Resistance Army under Siger had planned to attack the camp that harassed the Habsburg army in the middle of the night. But faced with two trenches and adobe walls filled with wooden pickets, the mountaineers were helpless.

They had figured out a way to fill the trench with dirt bags, but as soon as the dirt bags were thrown into the trench, the night guards on the dirt wall were immediately alerted. Then, the night attack was over...

Then, for the next few days, the army stopped moving. Every day during the day, the epee warriors and some cavalry also escorted the masons and villagers to pick up stones in the nearby mountains for the construction of bunkers. After the bunker has reached a certain size, the army will start again...

Before setting off, the Harburg army left a thousand defenders to protect the masons in the camp to build the bunkers. At the same time, the bunker here has also become a transit point for military supplies to prevent being attacked.

And after the army moved forward 20 kilometers, it was about ten minutes in the afternoon. Before it was dark, it stopped and started to dig trenches, bake adobe bricks, and build walls...

Under the command of His Majesty the Emperor, the Habsburg army was very patient. They are not in a hurry to pounce on Bern, but they are steady and steady!

Ziger personally rode to the front to observe. On the hillside, watching the Habsburg army in a stable group, Ziger's scalp was numb - how can this be done?

As for bypassing the army and attacking the supply team? I'm sorry~www.wuxiaspot.com~ Because there are too many troops, the Habsburg family has divided tens of thousands of heavy cavalry in leather bags and steel plates to **** the supply team. The Swiss Resistance Army has only a few people in total, and they can send out to bypass the harassing troops of the Habsburg family army. At most a few thousand infantry, they dare not provoke tens of thousands of cavalry.

In desperation, Ziger had to order the destruction of roads and bridges along the way, delaying the marching speed of Harburg's army. However, this Harburg army was different from the average European army of this era - it had a corps of engineers!

Under the command of Adolf Müller, the damaged roads and bridges were quickly repaired. Zig could only watch the Harburg army steadily advance. And the desperate ambush was also discovered by the Swiss mountain people who were forcibly recruited by Adolf Müller. Because their family members were being held hostage, these mountain residents did not dare to hide the facts. Even if there are a small number of mountain people who are willing to sacrifice their families, they can't stand others who disagree with them!

After discovering the ambush on the hillside, Harburg's army stopped immediately, and then took out cannons to bombard the hillside...

Zig was so tormented that he had no temper at all, so he had to order the retreat. At the same time, all the bridges along the way were destroyed, and the road to Bern was dug up.

Ziger then sent an urgent plea to the French, imploring them to step up their support. Otherwise, Bern can only face failure. And Switzerland, will eventually be successfully annexed by the Habsburg family...