War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

The decisive battlefield in Archduke Karl's mind has always been Lucerne. First of all, it is the core of the Orthodox Alliance. Secondly, except for Zug, other states have natural obstacles.

Especially at the St. Geda Pass in the south, only a small number of troops are needed to completely seal the road. Although Heinrich Belayim's personal ability is somewhat inferior, it shouldn't be a big problem just because of his persistence.

In fact, this is also a helpless move, because there is a real shortage of officers within the Swiss Confederation, especially the Orthodox Alliance.

Fortunately, Colonel Charles Duchardt went to Ticeno, otherwise Archduke Karl would have had to find a qualified officer to wipe out the rebels in this state.

In the end, the Free Alliance's fastest way to end the war was to capture Lucerne. At the same time, Lucerne was also the most suitable area for large regiment operations.

However, the preset battlefield that Archduke Karl came to was not a broad plain area, but a narrow mountain road.

Konstantin Sigvort and Ulrich Salis started a new round of conscription and food collection.

There was no other way. The situation in Friborg was unclear, and the rebellion in the three states directly stretched the forces of the Orthodox Alliance.

Just as Justice Karl was arranging his troops, Dufour's main force moved, and the latter decided to launch a general attack on Friborg.

This doesn't seem like a very wise move, after all, Friborg also has a strong fortress at the mouth of the valley.

These fortresses cannot be easily captured by relying on large numbers of people, because the width of the entire mountain road is limited, and the number of troops that can participate in the attack is even more limited.

Therefore, no matter how many troops there are, they cannot show their advantage.

And when it really becomes impossible to hold on, as long as the road is blown up, it will take days to weeks for the other side to clear the obstacles.

Bishop Minofel seemed very confident because of this, so he decided to go to the front line to command the defense in person.

Before the war, the two sides routinely sent each other letters to persuade them to surrender. The contents were almost as follows:

"'Those who obey the heavens will prosper, and those who defy the heavens will perish'. Now I have a million soldiers and a thousand generals. The prince can turn his back and take off his armor and surrender with courtesy without losing his position as a prince. Isn't it wonderful that the country is safe and the people are happy? ?.”

However, Bishop Minofil's letter is quite unique.

"Dear General Dufour.

I sincerely hope that you will consider my words carefully before making decisions that are foolish enough to cost the lives of your warriors.

Your opponent is me, the number one warrior under the Holy See, the ‘Invincible’ Minofel. As generals, you and I both know that war only brings pain, destruction and endless sorrow.

If you can stop this wrong behavior, I assure you that we are willing to provide lenient conditions to protect your people and property and ensure their safety and dignity.

As long as you recognize the right faith, we are still brothers. "

After Henry Dufour read the letter, he knew that it was the pope who was causing trouble again, but Minofel was wrong. This was not the religious war that Pius IX thought.

It was a war to unify eleven length units, eighty-two grain measurement units, fifty weight units, and more than ten currencies.

Although this is not a religious war, the Pope and the Papal States are definitely a very good target.

"We don't need a third country to intervene in our war. We are brothers! You were all deceived by the Pope's lackeys!"

The soldiers of the Free Alliance shouted repeatedly under the command of the officers. The soldiers of the Orthodox Alliance, who had no intention of fighting, began to hesitate, and even looked at the Jesuit priests.

When Minofel saw this situation, he was afraid that there would be a mutiny here, so the Swiss kidnapped him and gave him to the Free Alliance.

So he roared angrily: "Fire! Fire! Fire!!!"

The Jesuit priest took the opportunity to grab the gunner's torch and lit the fuse, and a shell shot out. However, because he did not adjust the angle, it hit the positions in front of the two armies.

However, this also became a signal for the two sides to start war. Dufour brought sixty four-pound cannons and twelve French-produced heavy cannons.

The Jesuit priests in the fortress were able to fire several rounds before Dufour's artillery deployment was completed, but because the distance between the two sides was too far, the shells simply missed the target.

Finally, after three rounds of firing from the Orthodox Alliance, the first round of artillery fire from the Free Alliance arrived.

Intensive fire is naturally more powerful than sporadic artillery fire. With just one round of artillery fire, the Orthodox Union soldiers and Jesuit priests in the fortress began to flee in all directions, and even some officers joined the panicked crowd.

Minofel patted the dust on his head and snatched the torch angrily.

"Hurry up and reload! I'm going to fire!"

"But Lord Bishop..." The artilleryman on the side wiped his blackened face.

"But what? Are you a Protestant spy?"

"No! No! No! But the barrel of the cannon is already very hot. If you hit it again, it will explode."

"Nonsense! Just three shots and the chamber exploded? Hurry up and reload! Otherwise, I'll shoot you first!"

"Yes..." the artilleryman replied quickly.

Two minutes later a dull explosion sounded in the fortress.

"Exploded? These guys are so stupid. Most likely their brains were damaged by chanting sutras." Augustine Keller, Dufour's adjutant, laughed.

Dufour put down his telescope and clicked, but his face was sad, because the shelling of 72 cannons did not have much effect on this fortress built on the mountain.

However, after a few hours of shelling, General Dufour discovered a problem, that is, the fortress no longer fired back.

Dufour, who didn't understand the reason, planned to send people to persuade him to surrender. After all, the cost of a strong attack was too high.

Then he got the unexpected good news that the fortress was empty and he had won the battle.

Dufour decided to pursue the victory, and when he arrived at Friborg, the city had already raised a white flag.

It turned out that the previous bombing incident directly led to the death of Bishop Minofel, the supreme commander of Friborg. As a result, the Jesuit priests fled in all directions, and the Valais troops who originally planned to support Friborg also retreated to Valais.

This battle resulted in a total of 41 casualties from the Orthodox Alliance and three casualties from the Free Alliance. The war was more brutal than the Battle of Gisikon, the most brutal battle in the Swiss Civil War in history (a total of 38 people on both sides were killed).

Dufour ordered the disbandment of the Orthodox Union army in Friborg State. Although he did not continue to hold Friborg State responsible, he also required them to bear military expenses and recruited labor to help the Free Alliance transport supplies.

However, this result seemed very generous to the members of the Friborg Canton. As a result, in the Swiss Civil War, the Free Alliance took the first victory.

Henry Dufour and Augustin Keller did not stay, but arrived in the Aargau canton as soon as possible.

Their plan was to divide their forces and send a small number of troops to attack Zug State, and then take the opportunity to lead the main force to attack Lucerne State.

Because the terrain of Zug State is open, the Free Alliance army has an absolute advantage over the Orthodox Alliance at this time.

130,000 vs. 40,000. In the eyes of the top leaders of the Freedom Alliance, there was no possibility of losing this war. They all dreamed of ending the war within two weeks, because they had already eliminated the opponent four days before the war began. More than half of the troops.

This war was outrageous in history. The entire war lasted only 27 days. The Swiss Federal Army had 78 killed and 260 wounded; the Orthodox Union Army had 26 killed and 114 wounded.