The Lithuanians were still gathering their troops slowly, but the Austrian side had gathered and was about to start a fight. After all, Austria had the final say, unlike Lithuania, where the quarrel was quarreled for a few months. Therefore, the gathering of troops here was much easier than that of Lithuania.
The key to restricting the Habsburg family from sending troops is money. There is no way, the Habsburg family's finances are so miserable. Austria and Tyrol are already mountainous and have less fertile land. Therefore, the territory income is not much. Moreover, the Habsburg family is huge and has many branches. Everyone has noble royal bloodlines and has to divide a lot of territory income. Therefore, very few of them end up in the hands of His Majesty the Emperor.
Although the Netherlands is rich, His Majesty the Emperor gained ruling power through marriage and has little prestige in the local area. The great nobles in the local parliament are very resistant to giving money to Austria for expansion. Therefore, there is not much money that can be obtained there.
Fortunately, although Austria cannot provide too much money, it has rich human resources and supports the rule of the Habsburg family. As long as the money is given in place, there are still many people.
In addition, the Austrians at this time were not the Austrians of the later Austrian-Hungarian Empire. During the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, the Austrians were addicted to literature and music, and Vienna became the capital of music, but the combat effectiveness of the Austrians declined sharply.
The same is true for the French. The literature and romance of the 19th century directly lowered the fighting power of the people. But before the literature and art, both the Austrians and the French were very brave and warlike nations.
There is no music in Vienna at present, and the Austrians still have many brave mountain people. Therefore, His Majesty the Emperor is not short of warriors. After the 900,000 gold coins exchanged for immigration and Marin and the 500,000 gold coins loaned by the Spanish were in place, His Majesty the Emperor began to expand his army...
Originally, in order to maintain the occupation of western Switzerland, the Habsburg family maintained about 20,000 to 30,000 troops. Among them, the most powerful one was the Swiss Army led by Frenzberg. This army had about 15,000 people, mainly 10 infantry phalanxes trained by Frenzberg imitating the North Sea Army system (1,250 people per phalanx, divided into 5 companies, and 10 teams per company), as well as 2,500 cavalry.
This army is mainly based on defense. After all, the early Marin phalanx (Spanish phalanx) featured the frontal defense of digging tunnels. The main function of the 2,500 cavalry was actually to chase and kill the defeated enemies.
Facing the Marin phalanx, the Swiss Resistance Army in the west was helpless. Although the Swiss spearmen were brave and good at fighting, Zieg and his Swiss Resistance Army were helpless in the face of the hedgehog-like primary version of the Marin phalanx.
After all, in the battle against Frenzberg's primary version of the Marin square, we first encountered not the enemy, but the three trenches that were crossing the formation. Under each trench, there were wooden stakes, which hurt their feet and lost their combat effectiveness. No matter how brave the Swiss mountain people were, their feet were made of flesh and blood, and their shoes were made of wooden soles or leather, so it was difficult to break into rows of wooden stakes.
The most important thing is that there are a row of five or six meters long spears on the wooden picket piles. If you dare to pull out the wooden picket piles, or fill the pit with something, eat a spear first... No, it is not a spear, but a row of spears...
Moreover, there are one-third of the musketeers in the Marin square. Do you dare to try filling the pit? Although the musket is far away, it is still fine within thirty or fifty meters.
Therefore, the Swiss spearmen were helpless in the hedgehog-like primary version of the Marin phalanx. Even if the French provided a group of plate-armored knights as infantry, they could not break through.
However, the effect of using artillery is better, but there is a problem, that is, there are also artillery on the opposite side. According to Marin's early combat habits, there are usually 50 artillery lines in front of the formation. Frenzberg also followed suit, carrying 50 artillery pieces in each battle...
Although His Majesty the Emperor was greedy for money and sold the cannons to Greensky, Marin quietly used the "cost price" to cast a batch of better-quality cannons for His Majesty the Emperor.
It should be pointed out that although the cannons cast by Marin for Austria were also rear-mounted Flang cannons. However, the casting process of the Beihai Kingdom is more advanced and the requirements are stricter. Therefore, the Habsburg family army now uses the rear-mounted Flang cannons. When the sub-gun and mother cannons are connected, they are basically tightly fitted and there is no gap. Therefore, when used, it is better than the French-made Flang cannons made by the Swiss Resistance Army.
Therefore, although the number of people was later reduced to 15,000, Frenzberg relied on his hedgehog-like defense ability to make the Swiss resistance army with France supported in the west at a loss. The two sides had a long confrontation in central Switzerland, and no one could do anything to anyone.
The difference is that the Swiss Resistance Army is really unable to do anything to Frenzberg's Swiss Army. The reason why Frenzberg cannot do anything to the Swiss Resistance Army is that it is insufficient troops and cannot launch a counterattack. The key to insufficient troops is that the Habsburg family has no money to maintain an army of 30,000 to 40,000 for a long time.
This time, His Majesty the Emperor not only exchanged 900,000 gold coins from Marin, but also obtained a loan of 500,000 gold coins from the Spanish, so naturally he would not lose money.
So, after getting the money, His Majesty the Emperor immediately began to expand his army...
Because Marin provided a simple armor for the wallet with steel plates, His Majesty the Emperor planned to give priority to expanding the cavalry this time. Originally, His Majesty the Emperor had a standing army mainly with 12,000 plate-armored cavalry. After becoming rich, His Majesty the Emperor recruited 20,000 knights and formed a heavy cavalry army with a population of up to 32,000.
That's not all. I probably think that the armor of a wallet with only 10 gold coins is very useful for steel plates. His Majesty the Emperor recruited another 5,000 knights and formed a heavy infantry army that was wearing leather bags with steel plates and holding big swords with both hands.
It should be pointed out that all these 5,000 people come from the Knights of Austria, Tyrol and Francheconte. Of course, these people are the backbone of the Knights, or from the poor Knights.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! The side branches of the Knight family and the poor Knight family may not be able to afford expensive war horses because of poor economic conditions. In other words, they cannot equip the children of the side branches or knights who have no inheritance rights. However, the children of the side branches of the Knight family and the non-first-children of the poor Knight family have practiced martial arts since childhood. At least, the two-handed big sword is not something that ordinary peasant children can play with. After all, a double-edged sword can hurt others and yourself. If you take it off, you will be a death.
The armor provided by Marin's leather bag with steel plates weighs only more than 25 pounds, almost half of the Gothic plate armor. Although the protection is not as good as the Gothic plate armor, Marin said that this armor can resist swords and bows and arrows, which is almost the same as the plate armor. When encountering muskets... the armor cannot be blocked like this armor, and the two are the same...
Therefore, wearing this kind of armor can also be considered a plate armor infantry. Moreover, because the weight is only about half of that of ordinary plate armor, this heavy armor infantry has much stronger maneuverability than plate armor infantry. After all, nearly half of the weight is less, and the endurance can be much stronger.
Especially when dealing with Swiss spearmen, this heavy armored infantry is very useful. Because the Swiss spear cannot penetrate this kind of armor with steel plates. The big sword with both hands can push or even cut off the Swiss spearmen's spear, which poses a great threat to the spearmen.
In addition, His Majesty the Emperor also authorized Frenzberg to expand 8 square formations of 10,000 people, making the total force of the "Swiss Army" reach 25,000.
In other words, in this wave, His Majesty the Emperor expanded a total of 20,000 cavalry, 5,000 heavy armored infantry and 10,000 infantry, and a total of 35,000 troops.
The emperor's expansion of the army naturally could not hide the French and the princes who were concerned about the emperor. However, the emperor did not care, but slowly trained the recruits to adapt to the battle. In addition to the 20,000 new cavalry who were handed over to the commanders of the major nobles loyal to the emperor, Maximilian I gave all the 5,000 heavy armored infantry and 10,000 ordinary infantry to Frenzberg for training.
Frenzberg did not bear the burden. Not only did he begin to train ordinary infantry skillfully, he also developed the method of using 5,000 heavy armored infantry - specifically, first let ordinary infantry confront the enemy with the Marin phalanx. Then, let 5,000 heavy armored infantry hold a big sword in his hands, suddenly rushed into the battlefield from the side, raided the flank of the Swiss spearmen, and used the powerful protective power and attack power of the heavy armored swordsman to destroy the formation of the Swiss Resistance Army. Then, the entire army attacked and eliminated the opponent...
As for His Majesty's more than 30,000 armored cavalry, he is mainly responsible for chasing and killing the fleeing enemies. He is specialized in dealing with the French knights...
His Majesty the Emperor and Frenzberg knew very well that the Swiss Resistance Army would lose in this war, and the main opponent of the Habsburg family was the French army. Therefore, there would be an earth-shaking knight duel! Maximilian I was known as the Knight Emperor, and he especially wanted to defeat the French in the field that the French were best at, thus showing the great reputation of the Habsburg dynasty.
Chapter completed!