Chapter 121: Bloodbath at Innsbruck II
With the battle having Begun, Berengar rapidly loaded his rifled musket before taking off another shot at the oncoming attackers; his projectile struck through the abdomen of an oncoming levy, bursting it apart and sending the man grievously injured onto the ground below where he slowly bled to death. Right after doing so, an arrow was fired upon him from below and glanced upon his steel skull cap; if it were just a few inches lower, it would have pierced his eye. Berengar quickly took cover behind the merlons as he began to reload his musket again.
His troops were operating under the orders of fire at will, and as such, the firing sequence was sporadic, as cannons went off at different times, and muskets followed in suit. Eventually, a group of levies made it to the edges of the walls, where the defenders began pointing their muskets through the machicolations and unloading their lead projectiles onto the poor souls below. Now that the enemy was directly below the defenders, the thousands of infantry who still wielded the 1417 Land Pattern Musket, which was smoothbore and thus had limited range, were able to engage the enemy behind the safety of the walls.
The screams of the enemy filled the air as they were blasted apart by cannons and muskets alike. Despite the devastating fire which was rained down upon them, some ladders eventually made their way into a position where the defenders closest to them fixed their bayonets and pierced through the levies" chests who scaled the ladders. Due to a lack of armor, the bayonet thrusts were extremely efficient at piercing through the levies" chests, and the bodies were kicked down from the ramparts and onto the forces below. Eventually, the ladders were pushed back down to the ground below, crus.h.i.+ng some of the men in the ma.s.sive horde that attacked the city"s walls. Surrounded, the defenders rapidly fired their muskets as quickly as they could, each soldier getting off roughly three shots a minute into the pool below.
Without any way to defend themselves, it had become a turkey shoot. The defenders stayed behind the cover of the merlons and fired into the mob of peasants and men at arms who kept pressing forward, trying to get out of the firing zone of the mighty cannons. Despite the attackers nearest to the wall being within the cannons" blind spots, they were unfortunately within the line of sight of the musketeers due to the machicolations, which provided the ability to fire directly down on the enemies below while being protected by the stone walls. With over 3000 infantry firing 2-3 rounds per minute, the defending forces could fire over 9000 rounds per minute onto the forces below, who numbered roughly 15,000 in total. Though not every projectile hit its mark, it took only a matter of minutes before a sea of corpses had filled below the Castle"s walls.
The level of chaos and carnage wrought upon the besiegers in such a short time span was unimaginable. The n.o.bles were terrified by the powerful weapons in which Berengar"s forces wielded and had already fled to the edges of the battlefield; their armies were nearly annihilated even the heavily armored men at arms could not resist the might of the thunderous weapons in which Berengar and his armies were equipped. These n.o.blemen were the children and va.s.sals of the mighty Barons and Viscounts that had marched off to war with Lothar. They came to the conclusion that Berengar"s rebellion was fated to end in an overwhelming victory. Witnessing death descend upon the battlefield as they had, they finally realized the reason why Berengar was so rapidly able to conquer cities; they highly doubted whether the stone walls of the era could defend against such overwhelming firepower.
Without realizing they were still within the range of the cannons, the commanders gathered what remained of their army and began to discuss among themselves how to proceed. A man in his thirties dressed in full plate lifted the visor to his bascinet and spoke with a voice filled with trepidation.
"What foul sorcery has Berengar the Accursed conjured to produce such devastating weapons? It must be true that he consorts with demons if such destructive power lies in his hands! How could we mere mortals defeat the devil and his representative here on earth!"
The Lords who had gathered had not gotten a good view of just exactly how their armies were so quickly slaughtered; they merely heard the thunder and saw the blood and flesh of their men splatter across the battlefield, completely negating any armor they may have been wearing. It was as if Berengar had created an army of sorcerers and demons. For how could the average soldier possess such dominating force?
Another Lord agreed with the previous statement and added his own
"We must flee quickly, or surely we will be devoured by the gates of h.e.l.l! We must warn others of the demonic power in which Berengar possesses!"
However, before they could flee in haste, the thunder of 6 guns going off echoed in the air as their explosive sh.e.l.ls landed upon the gathering of n.o.bles and tore them asunder. Berengar smiled wickedly as he gazed through his spygla.s.s. In under an hour, the siege had been lifted, and his enemy was torn to shreds; the commanders were all dead many of which were the regents of the unconquered regions of Tyrol. This overwhelming bloodbath would allow Berengar to place a Garrison within Innsbruck and move onto the depleted regions which refused to bend the knee to him and swiftly conquer the rest of Tyrol.
Eckhard quickly approached Berengar and asked what he wanted to do with the remaining forces still within firing range of the cannons, all of which were completely sh.e.l.l-shocked after witnessing the deaths of their commanders and comrades in such a short period of time.
"My Lord, what shall we do with the remaining enemies?"
Berengar"s lips curved into a wicked grin as he gave his final command in defense of Innsbruck.
"Open the gates and have the Cuira.s.siers ride them down!"
Seeing that Berengar had decided to silence the enemy to prevent any word of his advanced weaponry from leaking, Eckhard merely sighed as he saluted by pounding his fist on his breastplate.
"It will be done, My Lord."
After Berengar"s orders were given to the Battalion of Cuira.s.siers, who had up until now not been given a chance to display their might, the roughly 1,200 men mounted their horses before they rode out to butcher the thousand or so men who had already begun to route. The heavy cavalry quickly caught up to the fleeing footmen and cut them down like wheat to the scythe. Not a single besieger had made it out of the battle alive, and Berengar once more displayed the lengths he would go to to ensure his overwhelming victory in this war and all the wars to come. The more Berengar could prolong the spread of accurate information about his weapons, the longer he could maintain his overwhelming technological advantage over his enemies.
While this defense was going on, another battle was taking place back in the heartland of the Viscounty of Kufstein. While Berengar was crus.h.i.+ng his enemies who marched upon him, Count Lothar"s forces had arrived within Kufstein. If the defense of Innsbruck were considered a bloodbath, then the Siege of Kufstein would be considered a sea of blood.