Chapter 883: One Cavalry Against a Thousand
One thousand against ten thousand, one is worth ten, he is a true warrior.
One thousand versus one hundred thousand, one is equivalent to one hundred, so eight hundred are equal.
One thousand is worth one million, one horse is worth one thousand.
After many days of trekking, their food supply was at the bottom. As for the reason, the mountains are high and the rivers are long, which is one aspect. Deliberate delay or failure to do things is another aspect.
In short, during the high-intensity march, the Italian coalition's food supply was in short supply or insufficient for a long time.
It can be imagined that where a group of hungry men passed by, there must be a lot of resentment among the people, especially in those areas that were once under Austrian rule.
But it is precisely because of this that it gave the coalition leaders a very good excuse - to collaborate with the enemy and betray the country.
The result was that the rebels who participated in the Holy War were like rats crossing the street, and everyone was shouting to beat them before they even reached Austria.
The long march was boring and boring. At this time, the coalition soldiers had long lost their original excitement. Coupled with fatigue and hunger, most of them looked listless.
As the leader of the army, Boral was naturally displeased when he saw the soldiers looking like this.
At this time, some old officers who were good at observing people came over.
"Mr. Boral, what's bothering you?"
"You know what you're asking! You have something to say! You have something to say!"
The former small shop owner now has the power of a general.
However, these old officers from Central Italy have long been accustomed to being submissive, so they still said to Boral with a smile on their face.
"Your Excellency Marshal, we have a way to cheer up these lazy idiots."
"What can I do! Tell me quickly!" Boral asked impatiently. He didn't want these listless soldiers to embarrass him.
"This." The officer handed over a riding crop.
Boral shook his hands and pointed at the officer's face again, scaring the latter into retreating.
Boral threw the riding crop to the officer and smiled.
"Haha, that's interesting. Let's go to work!"
The officer carefully took the riding whip, thought for a while and asked.
"what do you mean?"
This officer also had his own little thoughts, and he didn't want to take the blame when he didn't know the other person's character.
As for whipping soldiers, he was not a sadist. Who would do such a thing if there were no benefits.
"Keep them in good spirits."
Boral said casually.
Several officers looked at each other. It seemed that the other party didn't want to take the blame, and it didn't even have the benefits of the verbal promise.
But the power is stronger than the people, so they can only work obediently and cannot show dissatisfaction.
So they vented their grievances on the soldiers. Such an army full of negative emotions was suddenly attacked by the Bolai Ning tribe.
Yes, the side with only a thousand people launched an active attack
In fact, the main reason was that Bolai Ning didn't know how many coalition forces there were in the valley, but he knew very well that the opponent's vanguard was unprepared.
At first, Bolai Ning thought this would be a tough battle, but when the gunfire rang out, the battlefield became one-sided.
The exhausted team was startled by the sudden sound of gunfire. They looked at their companions lying in a pool of blood at a loss.
At this time, the frightened war horse raised its hooves high and neighed. An officer fell off his horse and shouted, "The enemy is attacking! There is an ambush!"
As soon as these words came out, the crowd immediately exploded.
Obviously only a few people fell, but the impact was like dozens of artillery shells hitting them at the same time.
"Run! The Austrian army is coming!"
"This is a trap!"
"Help!"
"God bless!"
"Call the priests! Let them protect us."
The chaotic crowd had no discipline at all, and it was more like encountering a patrolman in a brawl than a war.
Blenin and his soldiers had no idea what was going on, but they seemed to be winning, and they even launched a charge.
The follow-up troops of the Italian coalition were dispersed by their own people before they could engage the enemy, and there were rumors that the main force of the Austrians had arrived.
The riding crop in Boral's hand was unable to stop the rout, so he simply fled with him.
Such farce was repeated in the next few days. Major Bollenin and his troops repeatedly defeated the Italian coalition forces, which were said to be one million, but actually numbered around 250,000.
This convinced Boral that the opponent's commander was Archduke Albrecht, and that there were at least 100,000 Austrian troops stationed in that small fortress, which was why the battle was so difficult.
In fact, the tactical literacy of both sides was not very good. The battle was very boring and had almost no highlights.
Major Bolining and others did not know how many of the enemy were there, so they just hid behind the fortress and shot the enemy with rifles and cannons.
As for the soldiers who had exhausted their blood on the Italian coalition side, they just wanted to go home, while the officers were not affiliated with each other and everyone wanted to preserve their strength.
As a result, almost all the fighting between the two sides took place 300 meters away, and the Austrian side was still hiding behind the bunker.
At this distance, let alone the muskets commonly installed by the army at this time, even modern assault rifles cannot achieve perfect hits against targets with bunkers.
(In fact, in modern warfare, the hit rate of assault rifles at a distance of 300 meters is less than 1%.)
In the first three days of fighting, the total number of casualties on both sides did not exceed four digits. On the fourth day, as the commander-in-chief, Boral sent his cronies and the fierce battle really began.
However, neither Boral nor his cronies are actually much different from those before. They are more of a show than fighting.
But even so, on the sixth day, Major Bolining found that the artillery shells in the fortress had been exhausted, and there was not even much gunpowder left.
As reinforcements failed to arrive, deserters began to appear, and the wounded soldiers drank all the wine in the fortress.
In order not to let the painful groans affect their morale, Bolai Ning could only find someone to send them out, but most of the soldiers who sent them out would not come back.
The remaining soldiers kept complaining about why the reinforcements had not arrived yet, and they were also thinking about a problem.
How many people are there on the other side?
Because the other party came and went again and again, and after so many days of fighting, nothing happened the same.
At this time, Blenin did not want to withdraw. He was not an aristocrat, nor a nationalist, nor an Austrian.
But he didn't want to withdraw, because he was a soldier, and this identity that only belonged to him, whether it was a noble status or something else, belonged to others.
Only the identity of a soldier was his own choice, but at this time he no longer had high hopes for reinforcements.
Major Bolining imitated the actors on the stage and said.
"Soldiers, you have done your best. I now allow you to withdraw to the rear with your weapons."
The soldiers looked at the stumbling major with some helplessness. Apart from being stingy and showing off like his elders, this officer had no bad habit of withholding military pay or beating soldiers.