Chapter 309: For King and Fatherland!
Berengar awoke to the thunderous echos of cannon fire from among his encampment. The weapons went off the moment the sun rose in the sky above the city of Verona. In his army of 50,000 men, Berengar had three entire brigades dedicated to Artillery that was a total of 12,000 men and 210 field guns.
If one were to take his entire army into consideration, Berengar had a total of five Artillery Brigades, two of which were currently located in the Swiss Confederation along with Adelbrand and the rest of his forces. Out of 75,000 men, 20,000 of them were dedicated to artillery. With the remaining 55,000 being a mix of infantry and cavalry.
That meant that Berengar had a total of 350 artillery pieces in his entire army, most of these being 1417 12 lb Cannons. With these 210 cannons fielded in Berengar"s current army, which had a rate of fire of 1 round per minute, he was capable of bombarding a region with 12,600 explosive sh.e.l.ls in an hour.
As such, the city walls of Verona fell before the population dwelling within had even consumed breakfast. As the northern wall crumbled to the ground from the h.e.l.lish bombardment, Berengar stood among his forces, clad in his gilded black three quarter"s plate armor. He held his burgonet under his arm as he addressed his soldiers gathered in the field.
"Men of Austria! We have many goals, here in Italy, and that is not simply to force the Emperor to recognize the Independence of the fatherland! With this war, we have been granted an opportunity, for the expansion of our people"s wealth and prosperity.
In this city, and every city like it here in Northern Italy, lies a trove of wealth, that few countries have ever ama.s.sed. There is gold, there is silver, and we will take it all! Now my rules of war still apply, to each and every one of you.
However, what I ask of you, here today, in Verona, is to plunder every item of value from this city, and bring it back to Austria! We will smelt the silver, and gold, into our currency, and stimulate the growth of our economy, which has already begun to stagnate!
Anyone who tries to stop you in your actions is to be considered an adversary, and should be treated as such! G.o.d with us!"
The moment Berengar finished his pa.s.sionate speech the army of 50,000 soldiers gathered around him began chanting their warcry.
"G.o.d with us!" "G.o.d with us!" "G.o.d with us!"
After saying this Berengar placed his burgonet on his head and unsheathed his sword before leading the charge into the rubble that once was the city"s Northern Wall. As he charged into the fray, he noticed the few thousand defenders gathered among the rubble, preparing to lay down their lives in defense of the city, and the people within it.
As such Berengar halted and allowed his soldiers to form ranks, where a battalion of Grenadiers fired their shots into the crowd. The moment they did so the lead projectiles found their way downrange and into the men who had gathered before them, piercing through their iron armor as if it were a knife pa.s.sing through b.u.t.ter, and with it turning their armor into b.l.o.o.d.y sieves.
For good measure, the Grenadiers followed the volley by lobbing their grenades at the enemy, after 1000 grenades went of those were left standing were either blown apart along with their fallen comrades or rendered in a condition unfit for battle.
In a matter of seconds, the only thing that stood in the Austrians way was sorely defeated. In response to this the battalion who had fired their shots reloaded their weapons, as the other infantry battalions rushed into the fray.
Berengar stood back among his grenadiers as he allowed them to reload their weapons in a matter of seconds with their quick loading tubes. After doing so they advanced over the piles of mutilated corpses and into the City of Verona where the chaotic scene displayed itself.
While Bernegar"s troops were disciplined thoroughly, to the point where killing or raping civilians was strictly off-limits, they had been ordered to ransack the city, and as such, they behaved like a horde of barbarians.
Kicking down doors, and tearing the houses apart looking for anything of value. Those few citizens who dared to resist found themselves gunned down, or ran through with a bayonet. in this chaotic time, the denizens of Verona found themselves gazing in horror as their city was torn apart by a horde of Austrian soldiers.
Berengar personally led his troops to the area he knew to be stashed with the most significant amount of wealth, and that was the city"s cathedral. When he kicked down the door to the church, the priests and citizens who had taken refuge inside gazed upon the Austrians with horror, as if they were the same barbarians who tore Rome apparent centuries ago.
The priest immediately approached Berengar and got in his path as he entered the building, holding a cross in his face and proclaiming the cathedral to be una.s.sailable.
"This is holy ground, you devils can not be here, turn back or face the wrath of G.o.d!"
Upon this priests" neck was a golden crucifix worth a substantial sum and as such Berengar gazed at the men with a wicked smile before grabbing ahold of him by the necklace. As he did so he stared into the priest"s eyes before mocking him.
"Relax, I"m not here for your worthless lives, only the wealth you church hordes away."
With this said Berengar ripped the golden crucifix from the Priests neck before knocking him out with a solid punch. The steel gauntlet on Berengar"s hand aided in the desired effect. As the priest tumbled to the ground Berengar caught ahold of him, to make sure he did not crack his skull on the wooden pews, and gently laid him to the ground.
As he did so the crowd of civilians shrieked in horror, however, Berengar simply ignored them before commanding his grenadiers to strip the Cathedral of its wealth.
"Take everything of value, and leave the people be unless they make an attempt on your life do no harm unto them."
With this said the Austrian soldiers began to tear down the crucifixes, stash away the chalices, and even tore down the golden statue of christ himself, before carrying it away. After everything of value from the church had been seized, Berengar and his troops left the cathedral in a bare state, with the civilians inside bawling like children.
It did not take an army of 50,000 men long to ransack everything of worth within the city of Verona, and they had turned the city upside down in the process. After acquiring every small piece of gold and silver, and transferring it into a giant pile outside the city Berengar stood before his troops and gazed upon the wealth that Verona had stashed away.
An avaricious smirk was spread upon the young monarch"s face as he witnessed the spoils of war. Yet, it was not enough, the true prize was in the city of Florence, for there lay an exceptionally wealthy family of bankers, who had the fortune to rival even Berengar.
This family was not yet n.o.bility, and yet they held enough wealth to finance Berengar"s enemies, that being the entirety of the Catholic Church. Berengar"s true goal in this war was not something as simple as independence, it was to strip away every bit of gold and silver the Medici had stashed away, and cripple the Vatican"s ability to finance a crusade against him.
Austrian Independence and the establishment of a separate Northern Italian Kingdom as a Protectorate beneath his suzerainty was secondary to acquiring the vast fortune of the Medicis. However, those were plans for the near future, for now, Berengar had other thoughts in mind.
As such he gave yet another impa.s.sioned speech to his troops as they gazed upon the wealth they had acquired from Venice with greed.
"Any man among you who has through a moment of weakness stashed away some spoils gained in this battle step forward and add it to the pile, and I will grant you impunity! I know the hearts of men, I too have the instinct to h.o.a.rd this pile of gold away in some corner of Austria, never allowing it to see the light of day!
Yet, I am strong enough in my conviction to utilize every speck of wealth we have gained here on this day, and in our future campaign in Italy for one single purpose! The minting of currency! I will not lie to you, our Kingdom faces economic stagnation, there is not enough gold and silver to go around, to fill the pockets of the people of Austria who work every day for a better future!
This wealth is intended not for my personal fortune, but for the prosperity of all Austrians! So, those among you who have stashed away some of the gains you have found within this city, I implore you once more to step forward, and add it to the pile if not for yourselves, than for the good of Kingdom!"
There was silence for some time until one man, in particular, walked forward. This man was Captain Arnwald, he was a man respected by the soldiers under his command, as Berengar had said in a moment of weakness he had stashed away a small pouch filled with gold coins within his belt"s contianers.
After the man had emptied the pouch of coins into the vast pile, it did not take long before more men followed suit, and emptied their hidden wealth onto the pile, before long over half the army had done so until not a single missing piece of treasure remained in the hands of his soldiers.
As Berengar saw this, he nodded his head and smiled upon his men, in doing so he made them a solemn vow.
"For your loyalty, and faith in your fatherland, I will make you a promise here on this day, every single piece of this treasure shall be used to invest in the future of the Kingdom of Austria, with it you, and your families shall see greater heights of prosperity, make no mistake, you all shall see your fair share of the spoils we gain in this war!"
After saying this Arnwald saluted Berengar and voiced his chant.
"For King and Fatherland!"
After saying so, the entire army repeated these words in unison.
After this speech was over, Berengar had every piece of treasure that was pooled in the pile recorded, and then sent a convoy of 5,000 men to ensure its safe return to the Royal Treasury of Austria.
Berengar would stay true to his vow, and use the vast stockpile of gold and silver, by smelting it down into the pure currency he had established. In doing so he was able to temporarily stall the stagnation issues his economy was currently facing, and do so bring greater prosperity to all of Austria.
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