With every cannonball fired by the Habsburg army that struck the earth, a great pillar of dust and dirt erupted, and Hungarian soldiers fell.
Maximilian I, watching this spectacle through his spyglass, could not hide his disappointment.
“I hear that the cannonballs of the ‘Land of Flowers’ explode and cause even more damage… The damned bastards refuse to sell their cannons and cannonballs at all…”
At Maximilian I’s regret-filled words, a loyal retainer beside him added.
“The cannonballs are one thing, but it would have been better if we had more cannons as well.”
“It would have been better than anything else… Damned Hungarians, damned ‘Land of Flowers’…”
Maximilian muttered with a face full of discontent.
Making a cannon required a higher level of skill than making a gun. And, unfortunately for the Habsburgs, they had no such skilled artisans. In contrast, Hungary had several. The one saving grace for the Habsburgs was that most of those problematic Hungarian artisans had already relocated to places like France, the Ottoman Empire, and Spain.
“As for the cannon problem, I have already sent people to the Teutonic Order and other places, so we should get a good answer soon.”
Speaking of a solution for the cannons, Maximilian I once again put the spyglass to his eye and surveyed the battlefield.
“The Hungarians have entered firing range!”
Almost simultaneously with his subordinate’s report, the five hwachas and the soldiers positioned in the first line of trenches pulled their triggers.
Rat-tat-tat! Bang! Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!
As the soldiers’ volley fire and the rapid fire of the hwachas continued, the area in front of the Habsburg trenches became thick with smoke.
****
“Aaargh!”
“Agh!”
The Hungarian soldiers, who had been advancing in formation, collapsed in unison like falling bundles of straw under the Habsburg army’s volley.
“Get down!”
“Down!”
The Hungarian soldiers who had taken the volley immediately threw themselves to the ground, took cover, and aimed their guns toward the Habsburg trenches.
“Fire!”
Bang! Rat-tat-tat!
As soon as the commander’s order fell, Hungarian bullets rained down on the Habsburg trenches. The Habsburg soldiers, who had just finished reloading and were rising to the firing line, had to quickly take cover from the pouring bullets. A few truly unlucky soldiers were hit and collapsed to the bottom of the trench.
“Now’s our chance! Charge!”
“Waaaaah!”
At the order to charge, the Hungarian army rose and stormed toward the Habsburg trenches.
Bang! Ba-bang! Bang!
The Habsburgs pulled their triggers in response to the Hungarian charge, but they could not break the Hungarians’ momentum. Enduring the Habsburgs’ fire, the Hungarians reached the trench line, leaped into the Habsburg trenches, and began to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
“How…”
Maximilian I, observing the battlefield through his spyglass, wore an expression of disbelief. A force armed with breech-loading long guns, dug into trenches, had just allowed a force with muzzle-loading long guns to successfully charge them.
***
Since the empire had appeared on the international stage, firearms in Europe had developed rapidly. And the war fought over Suez had accelerated the speed of Europe’s firearm development.
In the early days of the Suez War, the Europeans couldn’t even properly replicate the flintlock long guns sold by the empire. Now, they were in a situation where they had moved beyond breech-loading long guns and were challenging themselves to develop rifles similar to the Florentine Long Gun.
This was not simply a matter of blindly copying what the empire had made. France, having confirmed its utility in actual combat, immediately followed the empire’s lead, and the firsthand accounts of the mercenaries who had fought at Suez made a decisive contribution.
- The breech-loading long gun is definitively superior to the muzzle-loading long gun!
Based on France’s movements and the mercenaries’ accounts, the other rivals also followed in France’s footsteps. This was why Maximilian I could not understand the current situation.
***
The Habsburg army allowing the Hungarians’ charge was the result of a combination of several problems.
The first was ammunition. Or, to be more precise, it was because the propellant for the ammunition was still black powder. The smoke produced by the black powder momentarily blocked the soldiers’ vision. And it wasn’t just their vision. The smoke from the black powder irritated the soldiers’ eyes and respiratory systems. Although this had been reduced with the switch to breech-loaders, the problem still remained.
Furthermore, the black powder used by the Habsburg army was of a poorer quality, and it continued to torment the soldiers even after they had adopted breech-loading long guns. This was because the moment they opened the chamber to reload, the residual smoke would flow out and irritate their eyes and lungs.
In contrast, the Type-Gap and Type-Eul long guns that the Hungarian army had acquired from the Ottomans used genuine imperial-made ammunition. And the empire had been using low-smoke black powder since the time it introduced the Type-Gap long gun. Later, once they were able to secure a stable supply of saltpeter from the Bengal Sultanate, smokeless powder had completely replaced black powder by the time the Type-Eul long gun was adopted.
Thanks to this, the Hungarian vanguard, despite being armed with the muzzle-loading Type-Gap long gun, was freer from the problem of smoke compared to the Habsburg army. In other words, this meant that even with a muzzle-loader, they had an advantage in aiming and firing. Albeit, this was often limited to the first shot.
The second reason was the weakness of the hwacha and the Hungarian tactic that exploited it. The Type-Eul hwacha, modeled after the Gatling gun, was quite large. For this reason, the mobile version of the Type-Eul hwacha was mounted on a large gun carriage. Furthermore, its use of a large ammunition hopper instead of a belt feed made its body even larger, and it required many soldiers to operate.
The Hungarian army targeted this weakness. They gathered soldiers with good marksmanship, issued them Type-Eul long guns, and positioned them directly behind the first battle line and at the far left and right flanks. When the firefight began after the artillery duel, these men were tasked with striking the Habsburgs’ high-value assets. These were the Habsburg commanders, the hwachas, and the cannon artillerymen.
When this mission and tactic were first created, quite a few commanders and soldiers had expressed reservations.
“The commanders are nobles…”
Traditionally, capturing nobles was the priority. It was advantageous for later prisoner exchanges or for receiving ransom. However, the stance of King Matthias I and the high command was firm.
“Carry out your orders!”
The Hungarian soldiers who faithfully followed this order sniped the soldiers operating the hwachas, rendering them useless. With the hwachas, their most powerful support weapon, neutralized, the Habsburg army was forced to allow the Hungarians to break through.
***
As hand-to-hand combat erupted in the first trench line, the Habsburg and Hungarian commanders simultaneously issued the same order.
“Commit the reserves!”
A moment later, the reserve forces from both sides were thrown into the trench line where the melee was raging, almost at the same time.
With the commitment of the reserves, the hand-to-hand combat grew even more fierce, but the tide of battle did not easily turn in either side’s favor. Confirming this, the commanders on both sides scowled and shook their heads.
“The losses will be too great if this continues…”
In the end, the Hungarian commander was the first to make a decision.
“Signal a retreat. And commit the remaining reserves to cover the withdrawal.”
“Yes, sir.”
A moment later, the Hungarian army, having received the order, began to withdraw from the trenches and retreat to their main camp. The Hungarian reserves were sent in to block a Habsburg pursuit, but no Habsburg soldiers gave chase. They too were exhausted.
***
The battle thereafter devolved into a tedious stalemate. It was not easy for either side to recover the troops and resources they had lost in the first battle.
“War has always devoured a lot of money, but it’s devouring more and more.”
“Still, war itself won’t disappear.”
“I suppose not.”
The intellectuals who were discussing the war between the Habsburgs and Hungary soon reached a similar conclusion.
“In the wars to come, the losers will meet a terrible end. The victors will take everything.”
A similar conversation was circulating among the ambassadors at the Imperial Embassy in Florence.
“If they know that losing means the end, won’t war disappear?”
“It may not disappear, but won’t it at least be reduced? It was already a matter that cost a tremendous amount of wealth, and now it has become an affair that costs an astronomical amount.”
Yu Eung-bu shook his head at the words of Shin Sukju and Seong Sam-mun.
“No one starts a war thinking they will lose. Everyone only thinks of a future where they are the victor.”
“Hmm…”
At Yu Eung-bu’s cold words, Shin Sukju and Seong Sam-mun fell silent. Seong Sam-mun, after pondering something for a long while, asked Yu Eung-bu.
“In that case, what about our empire?”
Yu Eung-bu answered Seong Sam-mun’s question at once.
“From the Emperor Emeritus to His Majesty, no, from the First Emperor to the current His Majesty, have any of them ever been the first to speak the word ‘war’? Perhaps the ones who hate war the most are them.”
Shin Sukju immediately chimed in.
“That must be because they are men of great virtue.”
At Shin Sukju’s words, Seong Sam-mun and Yu Eung-bu put down the teacups they were holding and stared blankly at him.
“Why, why are you two looking at me like that?”
“Let us, at least in this room, speak plainly.”
“What did I…?”
“…”
Pressed by the silent pressure from the two men, Shin Sukju finally waved the white flag.
“I misspoke. Those men would avoid war just because it’s a waste of money.”
“They are men who would never do anything that would reduce the budget for Area 51 and the research institute.”
“Isn’t the biggest reason they care about national defense because it gives them a pretext to build the weapons and warships they love most?”
- Those bastards! They know me too well! If I don’t deal with them somehow…
After having a conversation that would have made Hyang say such things if he had heard it, the three men soon changed the subject.
“How do you think the war in Austria will end?”
At Seong Sam-mun’s question, Shin Sukju, who was well-versed in diplomacy, opened his mouth.
“It will probably end with a negotiation where both sides give and take a little.”
“Will the Habsburgs agree to negotiate?”
“Because Italy will offer them a greater profit than Hungary will. And the Pope has also stepped in.”
“The Pope…”
Mulling over the word ‘Pope,’ Seong Sam-mun shook his head from side to side.
“I have seen and heard many things I cannot understand since coming here, but the thing I understand the least is the Pope. What exactly is the Pope? I cannot tell if he is the head of a religion or a secular monarch. The attitude of the monarchs toward the Pope is the same. Sometimes they ignore him, and at other times they obey him unconditionally as if it were a heavenly mandate…”
Shin Sukju offered a short definition in response to Seong Sam-mun’s critique.
“I cannot define the Pope either, but isn’t the monarchs’ attitude just one thing? To be sweet to swallow and bitter to spit out. They embrace him when it is beneficial and discard him when it is not.”
The other two nodded at Shin Sukju’s words. Yu Eung-bu, who had raised his teacup to wet his throat, continued.
“The biggest problem in this war is that the number of armies that know how to properly use guns and cannons is increasing. Considering the difference between training and actual combat, this is the biggest problem. It is also the biggest problem our Imperial Army has.”