Chapter 900 Complete Victory
The Pope said something that he himself did not understand what it meant, but he was certain that the war was won, and that Archduke Franz was indeed as extraordinary and transcendent as rumored.
No, this was completely beyond his imagination.
One by one, the airships rose into the sky, drifted over the ridges, and then dropped barrels of horrific bombs on the rebels.
These barrels were mixed with nitroglycerin, which was thirty times more powerful than commonly used black powder. The instability of nitroglycerin turned out to be an advantage at this point, as it did not require a fuze.
The impact of falling from a high altitude is enough to detonate such horrific explosives, but the reality is that some of them detonate under the continuous effect of gravity acceleration before they even hit the ground.
Although it failed to explode on the ground as expected, after tests by the Austrian military, the nitroglycerin bomb was more powerful when detonated in the air, and the killing radius could be expanded by at least 1.5 times.
Austrian airships continued to throw explosives over the heads of La Boer's army. Faced with this unprecedented air attack, the rebels were temporarily at a loss.
Some people raised their guns and lowered them. They doubted whether their guns were useful in the face of such a big monster.
The air wave when the bomb hit the ground directly lifted everyone around it, and at the same time, there were gravel and sawdust flying everywhere.
The originally inconspicuous gravel became a deadly weapon, breaking bones and tendons on nearby soldiers. Some unlucky stones directly hit the eyeballs or penetrated the skull and directly erupted into a cloud of blood mist.
"Help! Monster!"
"My hand, my hand is gone!"
"I can't see. I can't see anything!"
"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah."
Wails, screams, and explosions occurred one after another. The gods were also very busy on this day because there were so many people praying.
However, the gods are always more reserved, and they will not let miracles happen just because of the begging of these people.
As the head coach, LaBoer had never seen such a huge monster, and his performance was no better than that of ordinary soldiers from farmers and citizens.
LaPorte frantically tried to get under the horse's belly, but the chaos and explosion also frightened the horse.
Moreover, the new thing of airship is really too scary. Just the shadow it casts from high school evokes the instinctive fear of human beings.
Lapore shouted to his cronies, but no one wanted to care about him at this time, everyone was busy running for their lives.
In desperation, LaPorte fled to another carriage, but as a loud noise was heard in his ears, he and the carriage were thrown away.
Accompanied by strong tinnitus and dizziness, La Boer saw that finally some soldiers began to fight back with their guns.
But before he could laugh, the soldiers turned to stone. Rapole felt very angry that his Caesar's men were not noble and brave Roman soldiers, but a group of cowardly slaves.
LaPorte managed to get up, but he soon became petrified on the spot. Because on the other side of the mountain, there was a steady stream of airships drifting over the hills and attacking the coalition forces.
At the same time, the ground troops of the Austrian Empire also began to take action. The soldiers walked into the valley to the beat of neat drums without encountering any resistance at all.
In addition to the deterrent power of the monsters in the sky, the skirmishers of the Austrian Empire on the ground also contributed.
Because they had fully installed new lever-type rifled rifles, their firepower and accuracy far exceeded those of the Italian Confederates.
At Taniguchi, where only a thousand-man queue could be deployed, only more than two hundred skirmishers entered dispersedly, which greatly reduced the area affected by the attack.
Moreover, skirmishers can also cause maximum damage to the enemy in the shortest time, which is conducive to the entry of follow-up troops.
The skirmishers are actually just bait to attract the enemy, and then the rocket troops concentrate their firepower to cover the enemy, and finally the battlefield is the decisive battle for the infantry brigade.
The reason why we rely on rocket troops is that on the one hand, rockets have a fast rate of fire and can inflict tons of damage in a short period of time. On the other hand, it is no problem for soldiers in the Italian mountainous areas to carry rockets on their backs, but it is too difficult to push them with heavy artillery. .
According to estimates from Albrecht's frontline command, the battle will last three to four hours, and the Italian Confederate forces will collapse.
But the actual situation is that the Italian federal forces collapsed the moment they saw the airship, and the skirmishers encountered no resistance at all when they entered.
The infantry brigade behind was basically here to hunt rabbits, and the mountains and plains were full of deserters from the coalition forces. Franz's order was not to kill indiscriminately. He didn't care about devils and angels.
Franz only knew that these people were valuable laborers and could accept lower living standards.
Regardless of whether they are devils or angels, throwing them into a factory for a few months will guarantee that they will become social animals.
To be honest, it was actually the first time for most people in the Austrian army to see an airship. The shock was beyond words, and the powerful power made people feel like a divine punishment.
However, the soldiers of the Austrian army were also very fortunate that such terrifying war weapons belonged to their side.
The Italian federal forces only made sporadic resistance. Marshal Lapole, who was called a believer of the devil by Pius IX, was found hiding in a crevice in the mountains.
Lapore didn't want to surrender, let alone come out. In the end, two Austrian soldiers tied him with a lasso and forced him out.
The other coalition officers had already dispersed, but their soldiers did not want to let them go.
The surrendered coalition soldiers pointed out the escape direction of the officers almost without thinking, and even said whether the other party had weapons, how many subordinates they had and their character.
With the help of this group of qualified prisoners, the post-war handling work of the Austrian army will be much easier. It was rare for a prisoner to help capture a prisoner.
This battle greatly touched Pius IX, especially those "monsters" that could fly in the sky, which completely broke his previous understanding.
The pope began to believe the words of the chief exorcist. Perhaps this Archduke Franz was really different.
Pius IX had already begun to consider the outrageous deal proposed by Franz.
The statistics of the war soon came out. The Austrian side only suffered 37 casualties, but lost one airship.
In fact, problems will inevitably arise when this new type of war weapon is put into complex terrain for the first time. This time, due to unknown reasons, the airship lost control and eventually hit a mountain wall.
However, the tactical effect is surprisingly good. The explosion of the airship is far more powerful than the bomb. The huge explosion almost caused a mountain landslide, and the rubble directly killed nearly a hundred coalition soldiers.
The losses of the Italian coalition forces were smaller than expected. Only more than 3,000 people were killed, half of whom were trampled to death by their own people during their escape.
An army that once boasted millions of soldiers only captured less than 80,000 prisoners.
These people will be sent to the Austrian mainland or overseas colonies after a simple identification, or they will have to pay their debts and redeem themselves according to the old rules.