War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Syria, Beirut.

Gablenz thought the British must be crazy to take the initiative. He really couldn't figure out how 5,000 people could attack a position defended by 20,000 people. What was the difference between this and risking death?

However, as a representative of the Austrian military, he could not be timid and had to behave like a real soldier.

In fact, the Egyptians were also in a hurry. They did not expect that the British army, which had been besieged for more than half a month, would actually have reinforcements, and they did not expect that the coalition forces would choose to fight out of the city.

Only Ibrahim, the coach of Egypt, even shouted "God has appeared!" He felt that this was a God-given opportunity. Although taking Beirut could not change the situation of the war, he could use the British and the fleet as hostages to prepare for the war. Egypt sought better surrender terms.

But he was the only one who was happy. Most of the Egyptian soldiers could no longer fill their stomachs, and they felt bleak about the prospect of victory. At best, a siege like this will result in starvation. Once the two sides exchange fire on the frontal battlefield, they will go to the battlefield like their dead compatriots.

The battle broke out. First, the Egyptians fired artillery at the British troops who came out of the fortress. But unlike imagination, the British did not line up waiting to be shot.

The British and Austrian skirmishers who came out first had little impact on the Egyptian bombardment. After all, the distance between the two sides is still thousands of meters. If you want to hit a target the size of a person with the cannon of this era, unless it is God.

Immediately afterwards, the coalition's artillery also began to fire. Most of the long-barreled heavy cannons used by the British were large-caliber and powerful, using special high-explosive shells.

Shells whizzed past the heads of the Egyptians' ranks, scaring them so much that they either fell to the ground or turned and ran away.

However, they soon discovered that few of those shells landed among the crowd.

Just as they were congratulating themselves on escaping, a huge explosion came from the Egyptian artillery position.

The Egyptian artillerymen hit by the 32-pound long-barreled cannon instantly turned into a pile of minced meat scattered everywhere. Even the steel was blown into pieces, and a 30cm deep crater even appeared on the ground.

Immediately afterwards, countless artillery shells landed on the Egyptian artillery position one after another.

The power of this large-caliber long-barreled cannon was astonishing, and the power of the explosion of high-explosive shells was also terrifying. However, after the smoke dissipated, the Egyptian soldiers discovered that they had not blown up a few cannons and killed a few people.

This is the case with cannons of this era. Compared with bombarding infantry, they are more suitable for sieges and naval operations, and attack larger targets with direct fire. Because its shooting angle is small and its trajectory is straight, its accuracy is higher.

However, with the artillery at this time, shooting infantry at a distance of one thousand meters is similar to anti-aircraft guns shooting mosquitoes.

However, the Egyptian soldiers were not happy for long before the coalition skirmishers started shooting.

The skirmishers on both sides are elite. The British skirmishers are from the Scottish Highland Infantry Regiment. They use the most advanced front-loading musket in the world in this era, the Brunswick 1838 percussion gun, which is only equipped by a very small number of troops in the UK. got this rifle.

The Braunschweig rifle is certainly not as famous as the famous Brown Bess, but its iconic double-ring grooved rifling and special bullets must be impressive.

There are convex grooves on both sides of its bullet, and it needs to be inserted into the groove when loading.

Although it looks cumbersome, it is highly accurate and easy to clean, which is a major improvement in the history of muzzle-loading rifles.

The Austrian skirmishers were also elite, and they also had the best rifles in the Austrian Empire. However, compared with the British Braunschweig, they instantly fell out of favor.

The skirmishers of the coalition army were all elite soldiers, with accurate marksmanship and courage. As the gunshots sounded, people continued to fall in the Egyptian ranks.

But Ibrahim ordered his soldiers not to fight back. Instead, he ordered the large troops to retreat, sent skirmishers to attack, and used artillery fire to put as much pressure on the enemy skirmishers as possible.

Ibrahim went to France and learned Napoleon's tactics of columns and skirmishers. However, he felt that now was not the time to make a desperate move, because all the coalition line infantry had not yet come out of the fortress.

Of course, he would not let his troops suffer too many casualties before attacking. Using skirmishers to fight skirmishers was the wisest choice in theory.

But Ibrahim forgot one thing. His so-called skirmishers were just ordinary infantrymen holding rifles.

Most of the skirmishers in the coalition were veterans who had experienced hundreds of battles, or hunters who had grown up in the mountains and forests.

The exchange of fire between the skirmishers soon turned into a one-sided massacre. Most of the Egyptian skirmishers wearing turbans were quickly knocked down, while the remaining ones did not dare to stand and reload ammunition, and lay down one after another. Fall to the ground.

There was a generation gap between the Charleville rifle itself and the weapons of the coalition forces, and lying on the ground to load ammunition greatly slowed down the loading speed. Soon, a considerable number of the Egyptian soldiers who lay down to try to avoid bullets could no longer stand up. Woke up.

At this time, the morale of the Egyptian skirmishers collapsed, and Ibrahim threw the scimitar in his hand to the ground.

"Let the Death Army send these cowards to hell!"

"Those who backslide, die!"

Following an order, a group of Sudanese natives rushed towards the fleeing Egyptian skirmishers with swords and spears.

Although the Egyptian skirmishers had guns in their hands, they were out of bullets at this time, and they were not much different from fire sticks. Theoretically, in this case, they had only two choices when facing the Sudanese natives rushing up, either to escape or to fight for their lives.

But these Egyptian skirmishers chose to kneel down and beg for mercy. This was a certain death path. The Sudanese natives could not understand what the Egyptians were saying.

Just hearing the "pop, pop" sound of the blade cutting through the human body and the spear piercing the human body, those poor Egyptian skirmishers fell into the yellow sand.

But the Sudanese natives didn't feel like it was enough, so they began to trample on the corpses of the dead, cut off their hands, feet and heads, and held them high above their heads to show off their achievements.

This behavior made the Allied skirmishers, especially the Austrian skirmishers who had never seen such a scene, feel nauseated.

"Do they all fight like this?" Captain Moho said subconsciously, and then he realized that he was next to a British skirmisher.

The other person couldn't understand his German and could only smile awkwardly.

So Captain Mojo took advantage of the time to change bullets, went to the back and shouted to two Austrian skirmishers, "It's disgusting for these Africans to fight!"

It's a pity that the two skirmishers couldn't understand his German, so they could only reply in very poor German, "I don't understand."

This situation is common in the Austrian army. Generally speaking, soldiers only have three things in common, eating, sleeping and women.

General Gablenz put away the telescope in his hand and said to Colonel Carter beside him.

"Are these African cannibals? It's so scary. It's hard to imagine how you survived the attack of these savages."

Colonel Carter shook his head.

"Look at it, they are one of the few jokes on this battlefield."