Chapter 199: Victory in Kärnten
After establishing an alliance with Adelbrand von Salzburg, Berengar pursued the remnants of the Bavarian forces that remained within the County of Salzburg. It took him a span of two weeks to thoroughly mop up the Bavarian remnants before he was complete with his conquest of the region.
During this time, Eckhard had engaged in various small-scale battles against the Bavarian forces, who until now had occupied the County of Kärnten. Much like in Salzburg, the Bavarians were quickly crushed; however, since Salzburg was cut off, they had nowhere to retreat. The Bavarian's only option was to hide behind the stone walls of the central city in the region, which was Klagenfurt.
Thus Eckhard had pursued them and was now in the position of setting up a siege camp outside of the city. Much like Berengar had done during the latter days of his campaign in Tyrol, a trench line that was supported with barbed wire and sandbags surrounded the encampment. The 70 cannons were placed within them and continued to batter several critical sections of the large stone walls.
One hundred forty shells pounded the stone walls of the city of Klagenfurt every minute, rapidly deteriorating their condition. At the current rate of fire, it would be less than 24 hours before the City walls crumbled, leaving the defending Bavarians open to the musket fire of the Tyrolean forces. Thus Eckhard was watching from afar as the stone walls were chipped at one shell at a time.
The Tyroleans stayed in the trenches, providing them with superior protection as they waited for the enemy walls to crumble down. Minute after minute, hour after hour, the repeated shelling of the city echoed in the distance, and the soldiers observed the sight of stones splitting apart from the walls in and outside of the city.
Eckhard was enjoying a glass of tea in his command tent when he finally heard the loud crumbling of the walls; as such, he quickly finished his serving before placing his helmet on his head and entering the fray. Outside of the city, with the walls having crumbled in six major sections on all sides of the town, the Tyroleans and their allies had marched over the trench line and into the battle as they began to chant their warcry which echoed through the air.
"God with us! God with us! God with us!"
The Tyrolean army shouted the phrase repeatedly as if they were in a mad trance; even their allies began to join in after a while. The sight of roughly 25,000 men outside the city walls, chanting the battle cry in unison frightened the Bavarian defenders to the core. However, they knew now that there was no retreat; they either defended the city or died in the process; those were their only two options.
As such, the battle had begun, and the Tyroleans unleashed musket fire on the defending lines that stood at the gaps in between the city walls. After a few volleys, the Tyroleans fixed their bayonets and allowed the Vorarlberg and Steiermark forces to charge into the fray. For now, the Tyroleans would have to focus on the defenders atop the ramparts.
The siege quickly became chaotic as the Austrian army forced their way into the gaps of the city walls and over the blood-stained corpses of the men who had fallen victim to the musket fire. Medieval forces clashed among each other as the Austrian soldiers valiantly fought to reclaim the city of Klagenfurt from the Bavarian occupiers.
Eckhard gazed from afar with his spyglass as he saw the heavily armored Steiermark infantry act as the vanguard, the courageous men pushed their way into the fray and began to use their blunt and bladed weapons to slash and hack at their foes in a gruesome display of violence.
Count Otto personally led the charge wielding a Warhammer in his hand, which he used to smash against the helmet of a nearby opponent; the deadly blow crunched the steel helmet beneath it and fractured the opponents' skull leaving him dead on the spot.
On the other side of the city was Cout Audegar, who wielded a longsword. The two Counts valiantly led their forces into battle from opposite directions as they cut away at the Bavarian points dwelled within the city. Audegar parried and oncoming sword thrust before adeptly counter-attacking with a lunge through the opponent's mail aventail, piercing the man's throat and ending his life.
The chaotic scene of the ongoing siege was caught by Eckhard's spyglass, who grinned at the sight. Soon enough, victory would be theirs. As for the Tyrolean forces they managed to stay back from the front lines and repeatedly fired their shots towards the enemies in the ramparts above whenever an opportunity presented itself. Any Bavarian who was foolish enough to poke his head over the merlons was quickly gunned down.
Eventually, the Bavarians were overwhelmed by the onslaught and pushed further and further into the city. The Austrians had now secured the gates of the city, as well as the walls beside them. With that in mind, Eckhard ordered the Tyrolean infantry to barge into the city. Now was the time for the Tyrolean line Infantry and Grenadiers to shine.
As such, the Tyrolean infantry rushed into the city, forming firing lines, and gunning down the fleeing Bavarians who desperately dashed to the center of the city in hope of some kind of reinforcement. The volleys rapidly shot down the Bavarian soldiers, and their bodies were cast aside in the street, bleeding out onto the roads.
Eckhard had personally entered the fray, marching into the city like a conquering General; the veteran Field Marshal had an aura of authority around him that was second only to Berengar's. Yet the young Count was not present at this battle, and thus it was Eckhard's charisma that carried the Austrian forces to victory.
As the Bavarians fled closer and closer to the center of the city, they were finally surrounded by the Austrians on all sides; if the Tyroleans desired, they could unleash a volley from 360 degrees and annihilate the enemy. However, Eckhard smelled a chance for profit and quickly ordered his troops as he entered the scene.
"Hold your fire! Hold your fire!"
Seeing that the Austrians had held their position but could slaughter them at any moment, the Bavarian Commander called out to the man who had given the orders.
"Are you the leader of this army?"
Eckhard merely nodded at the Commander as he held his sword within his hand.
"I advise you to surrender; it would be pointless to lose any more of your men in this vein struggle of yours!"
The enemy commander merely opened up the visor of his helmet and spat on the ground.
"You are nothing more than a minion of Berengar the Accursed that makes you a servant of the devil!"
Hearing these words, Eckhard frowned; it would appear that the enemy commander was a pious man who took his orders from the Pope. The new Pope had declared that anyone who surrenders to a Heretic shall be doomed to eternal damnation. To a true believer like the enemy commander, he would rather die than risk his soul by surrendering to those he perceived to be Heretics.
Seeing that the man was not going to surrender, Eckhard merely sighed before giving a dreadful order to his soldiers who had gathered around the Bavarians with their muskets pointed in the direction.
"Open fire!"
with that, a volley was fired from all angles, shredding apart the remaining Bavarian troops. Not a single member of the defending army had survived the siege. Seeing such pointless death, Eckhard could not prevent himself from complaining.
"Pious fool! I hope you burn for eternity for leading your men to such a cruel fate!"
As for Otto and Audegar, who witnessed the ruthless execution of the surviving Bavarians, they felt no pity. These men had invaded their lands and set the Duchy aflame; death was well deserved in their eyes; Otto approached Eckhard and clasped the man on the soldier.
"You gave them a chance; that is all that matters. They got off lightly for what they have done to these lands..."
Eckhard merely shrugged the comforting hand aside as he looked into the sky and off into the direction of Bavaria. He knew that after Austria had been reclaimed, Bavaria would be Berengar's next target; soon enough, justice would be brought against the enemies of Austria. As for how it was handled, Eckhard could only guess what Berengar would do to the Bavarians after he conquered them.
The siege of Klagenfurt was over, and Kärnten, for the most part, was secured; several weeks had passed since the beginning of their campaign, and many lives were lost, precisely that of the Bavarians. Now Eckhard would leave behind a garrison to control these lands and march into Steiermark, where he would march through the safety of its grounds and into Upper Austria. As for Berengar, he and his massive army would march on Vienna and route out Duke Dietger and end his occupation of Austria once and for all.